More than 450 nursing home beds lost due to care facility closures this year

The closure of smaller nursing homes this year will result in the loss of more than 450 beds across the sector, according to new figures from the State’s health service watchdog.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) said 247 beds have been lost with the closure of nine nursing homes since the beginning of the year.

A further 219 beds will be lost at seven further nursing homes who have told the regulator they are closing their doors. This brings to 466 the number of beds being lost in the sector.

In total, 16 smaller nursing homes have announced their closure so far this year.

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Rising energy and staff costs and higher regulatory expectations on healthcare standards and premises are heaping pressure on smaller care homes, forcing some to close. Hiqa said that most nursing homes that closed were smaller care facilities with an average of just 29 beds.

Hiqa said the closure of smaller nursing homes “requires urgent attention in order to avoid further closures impacting on the lives of residents and their families and friends”.

In a note circulated to nursing homes, the regulator said the majority of smaller nursing homes have a “history of delivering quality care to their residents” and their closure is a “huge loss to the individual residents, their families and friends, the registered provider and their staff”.

Higher electricity and gas bills have increased the number of closures this year, accelerating a trend that saw 29 smaller homes close between 2018 and the end of last year.

Just more than 2,000 beds have been lost in nursing homes since 2018, though 23 facilities with 837 beds closed in 2020 which includes HSE facilities repurposed as step-down units, Covid-19 response units or other short-term care facilities to deal with the pandemic.

The size of nursing homes continues to grow, with the average number of beds in nursing homes increasing in each of the last five years and now stands at 54.6 nationally.

The overall number of nursing home beds across the sector has remained largely unchanged in the past four years, with 31,867 beds in 562 nursing homes at the start of this month.

The closures will put further pressure on the availability of step-down care from acute hospitals and long-term care for an ageing population, 4 per cent of whom require nursing homes.

Under healthcare regulations, Hiqa’s chief inspector must be given six months’ notice of the closure of a nursing home to ensure residents and their families have time to find another home.

“As this is a very difficult time for residents, they must be afforded the time they require to choose an alternative home and to transfer to that home safely,” Hiqa said in its note.

The watchdog told nursing homes in the circular that its regulatory work is continuing this year, with 566 inspections completed so far and the publication of 460 inspection reports.

The nursing home sector has had increases to the subsidies paid to nursing homes under the Government’s Fair Deal scheme, while individual nursing homes have complained about the pressures from regulatory demands to make continuous, costly improvements to facilities.

Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, the private nursing home lobby group, said the closure of smaller, community-based homes was “at complete odds” with Government policy to “reorient care from acute to community healthcare” under the Sláintecare plan.

He warned of further nursing home closures if there is no reform to the financial subsidies for nursing homes and further support from the Government to help cover increased costs.

“At this stage, if the Government doesn’t act quickly it is going to be an unmitigated disaster,” he said.