Beaumont nursing home families welcome fresh talks with NTPF
Protestors outside the constituency office of Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Monday. Picture: Jim Coughlan
The families of nursing home residents at risk of losing their homes over a Fair Deal funding crisis have given a cautious welcome to a round of funding talks with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).
It follows a U-turn by CareChoice on Friday night on its decision to withdraw Beaumont Residential Care (BRC) home in Cork City from the Fair Deal scheme, to allow space for negotiation.
On Monday, the group which runs 14 care homes around the country, announced it was pulling BRC from the Fair Deal scheme because of a lack of NTPF funding.
CareChoice CEO Stuart Murphy also complained about a lack of meaningful engagement from the NTPF following 14 attempts to contact it for negotiations on BRC’s Fair Deal funding arrangements, without success.
The families of BRC’s 56 Fair Deal residents mounted protests at the offices of the Tanaiste, the finance minister and the enterprise minister in Cork this week, and on Friday night, CareChoice confirmed that it met with the NTPF on Friday.
A spokesperson said: “CareChoice agreed to stay in the scheme for another month in the hope that there can be fruitful engagement.”
Anne Rogers, whose mother is one of the long-term BRC residents at risk of losing her home, said the families are happy that both sides are negotiating but are conscious too that the clock is ticking and there is still a long way to go before the issue is resolved.
“If what we have done has sparked this, then we are happy to keep going,” she said.
“We are planning another protest at their offices next Friday and after that, we plan to travel to Dublin to raise the issue directly with the Taoiseach.
“We are not just doing this for us. We are doing it for the residents in all the other nursing homes, and for their families too.”
The group protested outside Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s office on Monday but ramped up their campaign on Friday with protests outside the offices of Finance Minister Michael McGrath and Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney in Carrigaline.
They have also written to the Taoiseach to appeal to him to urgently intervene.
“The distress, upset and anguish that is being inflicted on vulnerable elderly people over this issue is simply disgraceful,” Ms Rogers said.
“Organising these protests outside Minister Coveney and Minister McGrath’s offices today is the last thing we want to do, but we have no alternative left.
“Our parents are old, extremely vulnerable and are in no fit state to be worrying about whether they will have a safe roof over their heads in a few weeks’ time.”
CareChoice told relatives that each of BRC’s 56 Fair Deal residents gets €738 less per week than a HSE nursing home resident under the terms of the NTPF deed of agreement, and that it has received on average of €16 per resident per week in their Cork homes, in comparison to a €138 increase per resident per week in HSE publicly-run nursing homes in Cork.
Mr Murphy told the that against the backdrop of rising care costs, the group had incurred a €6m loss over the last two years, and that the current NTPF rate of support for Fair Deal residents of €1,085 per resident per week at Beaumont was just not sustainable.
He said CareChoice needed a minimum of €1,270 per resident per week — an extra €580,000 per year in support — to continue providing care.
Beaumont is the focus now because its deed of agreement has expired but he said the contracts for CareChoice’s five nursing homes in Cork are up next year and a funding resolution must be found.
Mr Coveney said it was not acceptable that 56 vulnerable people and their families are left in limbo and uncertain about the future because of the absence of a negotiated agreement.
“The only way for a solution to be reached is through dialogue between the parties,” he said.
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