Nursing homes fear closures over HIQA costs
Nursing Homes Ireland, the representative body of the country’s 447 private nursing homes, revealed yesterday that the sector has spent more than €35m on its facilities and operations to comply with HIQA standards since formal inspections began in July 2009.
NHI also complained that public nursing homes were receiving on average over €500 more in weekly bed rates than their private counterparts from the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
NHI chief executive officer, Tadhg Daly, said that private nursing home owners had already invested an average of €77,872 to date on upgrading their facilities.
While many nursing homes were interested in expanding their facilities, Mr Daly expressed concern that rising labour, food, energy and other costs were placing major financial pressures on the operators of many nursing homes.
“Already a number of homes have indicated that they will be closing as the cost of compliance with the new standards cannot be met by them arising from a failure to achieve a satisfactory rate under the Nursing Home (Fair Deal) Support Scheme,” he remarked.
Mr Daly said a survey had revealed that staff costs had risen by 10% and food by almost 12% since 2007. However, NHI said the vast majority of such increases were directly attributable to ensuring compliance with HIQA standards.
NHI said it was worrying that the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which negotiates rates paid to nursing homes under the Fair Deal scheme, is failing to recognise rising costs.
The NHI survey also highlighted how private nursing homes are paid an average weekly bed rate of €831 by the NTPF, compared with an average of €1,371 for public nursing homes.
Mr Daly said the difference between the rates was “unacceptable”.
