Older people face waiting lists for nursing homes

Vulnerable elderly people are set to be put on waiting lists for nursing home beds until rooms are “vacated”.

The HSE’s national service plan for this year says the situation cannot be avoided. The document said everything was being done to ensure the safety of patients.

However, it added: “In the absence of additional funding, there will be challenges in responding to the need for residential care.

“It is anticipated that a placement list will be in operation and new places offered as funding becomes available.”

The funding issue relates to the HSE’s nursing home support scheme, also known as Fair Deal.

This scheme will receive €998m funding this year and aims to provide 22,761 beds.

While this year’s budget is slightly higher than last year’s figure of €994m, about 850 fewer beds will be available in 2013.

The situation was lambasted by Age Action Ireland spokesman Eamon Timmins, who said it was a further indication of the real-life impact the system’s — and wider country’s — dire financial problems were having on ordinary people.

“We are concerned the plan acknowledges that it is likely waiting lists for nursing homes will apply for budgetary reasons this year.”

Mr Timmins said the situation could mean that older people who were sick, frail and no longer able to live at home, would be left waiting for somebody to vacate a nursing home bed before they could receive the care they needed.

He said the situation, which had at its core an attempt to save money, would cause more budget problems as these elderly patients would have little option than to spend more time in hospital beds.

“The HSE service plan aims to provide 10.3m hours of home help during the year — 400,000 hours less than was targeted in the 2012 plan,” said Mr Timmins.

Meanwhile, despite the HSE report’s insistence that an extra €35m would be made available for mental health services, confusion continued to surround the situation.

An identical funding figure was put forward last year. However, the HSE and Department of Health have been unable to clarify exactly how this 2012 “ringfenced” money was spent.

Just €6m is known to have gone to mental health areas, while it is unknown how the remainder was spent, or if it is still available for mental health services.