PUBLIC NURSING homes with fewer than 50 beds will be difficult to keep open, the Minister for Health has said. At a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children yesterday, James Reilly said some frontline services would be hit next year as a result of the reduction in health service funding of up to €800 million.
Dr Reilly again said some public nursing homes or community nursing units would close next year. Units with fewer than 50 beds would be difficult to maintain from a financial point of view and as a result of staffing ratios.
He also said community nursing units were coming under pressure as a result of the budgetary situation, staffing issues due to the moratorium on recruitment and as a result of having to meet new standards set by the Health Information and Quality Authority. It was “not living in the real world” to suggest that older community nursing units should be refurbished at a cost of €600 million, he added.
Chief executive Cathal Magee said the HSE faced a reduction of about 3,200 in staffing levels next year under the Government’s new employment targets for the public service. This was going to present really significant challenges in relation to properly staffing community nursing units and “may necessitate consolidation”.
Mr Magee also said no decisions had yet been taken. Where closures of community nursing units were to take place, the HSE would enter into a consultation process which would take place over a three-month period.
Dr Reilly told the committee that an outline of new structures to replace the HSE when it is abolished will be known in the next few weeks.