Families of Cork nursing home residents to protest outside ministers' offices

Family member Anne Rogers said that they plan to write Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, 'himself a medical professional, with a plea to show empathy and understanding of our plight today and in the future, to support the funding to allow the residents to remain in their home.'

Relatives and friends of Beaumont Residential Care residents are to protest outside Cork ministers’ offices calling for intervention, after the nursing home’s decision to leave the fair deal scheme.

The protest comes as the nursing home said it has been “forced by the actions and inactions of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF)” to leave the scheme under which the HSE pays a portion of a person’s nursing home fees.

CareChoice Group CEO Stuart Murphy previously said the decision to leave the scheme is “extremely regrettable” and was taken “as a last resort.” The home will remain open, but will no longer remain in the Fair Deal scheme from May 30. Mr Murphy said:

The reality is that Beaumont Residential Care, in common with many of our homes, is under extreme financial pressure because of the shortfall between the funding delivered by the NTPF and the actual cost of caring for our residents — a gap which has widened considerably because of the cost of living increases across the Irish economy.

The group of family members are calling on the Government to intervene in the dispute over the future funding of 73 residents, many of whom have Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

The group will stage several protests at the offices of Tánaiste Micheál Martin, Finance Minister Michael McGrath and Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney.

Anne Rogers, whose mother is one of the long-term residents at the nursing home, said the families are seeking urgent help to ensure the residents are not discriminated against and “forced out onto the street”.

“The families and friends of the residents have been notified that this is due to the NTPF refusing to provide sustainable funding in line with spiralling costs due to the cost-of-living crisis,” she said.

A spokesperson for the group said relatives of the residents were informed by management that Fair Deal nursing home residents receive €738 less per resident per week than HSE nursing home residents.

The management of Beaumont Residential Care explained to families that the Fair Deal rates are decided by the NTPF and that they have received on average an extra €16 per resident per week in their Cork homes compared to €183 per resident per week in HSE homes in Cork.

The spokesperson also said the management of Beaumont Residential Care has sought multiple requests for meetings with the NTPF, all of which have been unsuccessful, while several letters to the NTPF over the last eight months “have been ignored”.

"The family members have themselves reached out to members of the Government who are local politicians and the NTPF directly and the group believes their pleas are being ignored," the spokesperson said.

Ms Rogers said: “Our intention is to protest and advocate here for as long as it takes to secure long-term care for our parents and loved ones.

We plan to write to An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, himself a medical professional, with a plea to show empathy and understanding of our plight today and in the future, to support the funding to allow the residents to remain in their home.

A spokesperson for the NTPF said Under Section 41 of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009, the NTPF is the designated body to agree maximum prices with private and voluntary nursing homes for the purpose of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme.

“As part of this function, the NTPF will enter into Approved Nursing Home Agreements with registered nursing homes to record the maximum price(s) that have been negotiated.

“The NTPF does not comment on its negotiations with individual nursing homes,” they said.