HSE budget: Long-term care - ‘Little difference for elderly’

The HSE’s national service plan will make little difference to older people needing long term care and support, Age Action said.

There is an additional €20m in the health authority’s budget for 2016 to maintain the home help hours, home care packages, and transitional care beds at this year’s level.

The nursing home support scheme (Fair Deal) budget next year has been set at €940m, an increase of €35m over projected spending this year.

Next year’s nursing home spend will support around 23,450 people per week, an increase of 649 on 2015.

Age Action’s head of advocacy and communications, Justin Moran, said an extra 100,000 home help hours sounds impressive but it was only maintaining the number of hours already being provided this year.

“An additional 1,650 home care packages were announced but, taking into account the number of packages allocated this year, the true figure for 2016 is less than a third of that,” said Mr Moran.

It was also clear from the plan that the HSE did not believe the additional investment provided would be enough for services for older people.

Key challenges for 2016 outlined in the plan are a 3.1% increase in service demand by older people and a 4.2% increase in the over-85 population.

The plan states that waiting lists will be established for home care and transitional care to manage the allocation of services.

Mr Moran said there also appeared to be a great deal of doubt in the HSE about whether it can meet the commitment to keep waiting times for the Fair Deal scheme to four weeks, or comply with the standards required in public long-stay residential facilities.

Nursing Home Ireland welcomed the additional funding to support Fair Deal but said the State was failing to recognise the true cost of providing such specialist care.