Human rights body examining new HSE discharge policy

The HSE has changed how discharges to nursing homes are managed after hospital treatment is complete.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has referred concerns about a new HSE hospital discharge policy for review to its human rights and equality unit.

As fears about overcrowding grow, the HSE has changed how discharges to nursing homes are managed, after hospital treatment is complete.

Anyone waiting for a community bed will be temporarily offered the first available regardless of location rather than waiting for their first option.

This has caused widespread concern among groups including Age Action, the Irish Association of Social Workers and gerontologists.

Professor Des O’Neill, the Irish Society of Physicians in Geriatric Medicine chair, wrote to IHREC asking them to intervene, saying the policy is ageist.

A spokesman for IHREC said that the matter is now under consideration.

“The Commission has received Professor O’Neill’s letter on behalf of the Irish Society of Physicians in Geriatric Medicine,” he said.

“It has been forwarded to our Policy and Research Department, who examine issues of human rights and equality in the State, taking a broad view of Irish social policy, for consideration and to inform their work.” 

In contrast, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly urged older people and their families to work with hospitals, even if they are reluctant to accept the first offer.

“What we’re saying is we will accommodate (choice) to the greatest extent possible, but if there is an 80-year-old on the corridor downstairs, the patient safety priority is the patient on the corridor,” he said.

He acknowledged that an elderly person may wish to visit their spouse in a nursing home but not have a car, which makes distant sites inappropriate.

“I have no doubt that there will be significant pressures in our emergency departments this winter, there already are,” he warned, however.

The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine described the policy as “the least worst option”, pointing to new French research showing a significantly increased risk of death linked to a night on a trolley.