Nursing home bed approvals may recommence next week

APPROVAL for a nursing home bed under the Government’s stalled Fair Deal scheme may recommence by the end of the next week, Health Minister Dr James Reilly said last night.

However, the rate at which approvals are made is not likely to match the approval rate prior to the scheme’s suspension on May 13, when it emerged the €1 billion fund was out of money.

The suspension of the scheme has led to a backlog of up to 4,600 unapproved applications in the system, according to Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State at the Department of Health. Ms Lynch revealed the scale of the numbers affected by the funding crisis in the Dáil yesterday.

However, the figure was challenged by the Health Service Executive (HSE). A spokeswoman for the executive said the figure for “live” applications was closer to 1,000, including 782 applications processed up to final approval prior to the scheme’s suspension, and a further 173 processed between May 13-25, again without final approval.

The HSE spokeswoman said the likely cause of the discrepancy is that not everyone who applies for a nursing home bed follows through on the application. Applications lapse after six months.

The spokeswoman said that since the scheme was introduced in 2009, approximately 4,000 applicants had entered but not completed the application process and that, for the majority of cases, it was for reasons of their own.

Opposition parties have called on the Government to clarify the future of the scheme, which allows for posthumous payment of nursing home care.

There was “a clear shortfall in the funding”, Ms Lynch said. “We do not have the money to provide final approval for the applications; it is as simple as that... The final examination of where the money went and how we will manage this scheme for the rest of the year will come to us on June 3.”

It was also claimed yesterday that banks are nervous about lending money to nursing homes because of the threat to guaranteed funding under Fair Deal.

The developers of a nursing home in Dingle said they had been refused a loan on this basis by Bank of Ireland, which denied the claim. Ulster Bank said the issues with Fair Deal were troubling.