Nursing home told to pass on €720 fee to elderly patients

HSE officials have controversially told private nursing homes to pass on the cost of extra services such as physiotherapy and “toiletries” to elderly residents to cover ongoing cuts to the system.

The claim has been made in a letter to 30 residents of Carysfort Nursing Home in Glenageary, south Dublin, sent by the facility to family members in recent days.

In the correspondence, the nursing home’s management said it has been advised by the National Treatment Purchase Fund to charge its existing 30 residents an extra €720 a year.

It said health service officials suggested it should do this to cover reductions in the amount of money it will receive as part of the Fair Deal scheme this year.

The payments would be used to cover “extras” such as physiotherapy, chiropody, transport to hospital where required and even toiletries, the letter — which said the nursing home is continuing to negotiate on the matter — claimed.

Extra payments at private nursing homes have occurred in previous years, casting doubt on whether the latest charges are the result of fresh cutbacks or the result of yearly negotiation issues between the HSE and the private nursing home sector.

However, the Irish Patients Association said the increased use of the extra charges shows the deepening impact of health service cutbacks, adding that the “sneaky tax” is likely to be repeated more frequently across the country.

IPA chairman Stephen McMahon said a review of more than 50 private nursing homes in the Dublin-Wicklow region showed many have seen cuts to their Fair Deal payments, ranging from €1 to €75 per week.

As a result, he said, depending on the facility, some vulnerable residents are facing extra charges of up to €3,600 a year — including €10 on “toiletries”.

“For many of the most vulnerable elderly members in our society, such increases are basically sneaky stealth taxes.

“They are not negotiable, and do not have the backing of the Dáil, which approves of taxation proposals,” he said, adding:

“The question is how much has been or will be passed on to residents? Some of them have as little as €40 per week in discretionary income.”

A HSE spokesperson said the NTPF is still in “one-to-one” negotiation with nursing homes to decide on what Fair Deal funding they should receive this year.

She said the “cost of care” in private nursing homes “covers services outlined in the Nursing Homes Support Act, 2009”, which allows for facilities to “impose additional charges for incidentals/extras such as social programmes, transport, newspapers and hairdressing, as these costs are not included in the cost of care”.