Real cost of meeting nursing home standard

WITH reference to your article headlined ‘No Country For Old Men’, March 18), I was a member of the working group on the national quality standards for residential care settings for older people. I sincerely welcome the planned introduction of their proposals. They are much needed and long overdue.

However, I believe the e190 per bed charge that you refer to is nothing more than a red herring. While it is correct to suggest that compared to international norms, the e190 fee is high, it pales into insignificance when one examines what the real costs of implementing these new standards will be.

It will certainly be far higher than e190 per bed per year and the e500 registration charge every three years that you mentioned. In my view the actual price of the average nursing home bed may have to increase by as much as e250 per week in order to allow nursing homes attain the standards that the Health Information and Quality Authority will require.