Eight hundred and fifty beds in nine community nursing units for older people are to be provided over the next three years in partnership with the private sector, the Minister for Health and Children has announced.
The Public Private Partnership will provide the beds in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area (Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow) and the Southern Health Board (Cork, Kerry).
The beds will be in community nursing units with day-centres attached.
Besides extended care, the units will offer respite and rehabilitation "to help promote the dignity and independence of older people and to support them in living at home", Mr Martin said.
Nine of the centres will be in the ERHA region and eight in the Southern Health Board.
The Southern Health Board said it was "delighted" at the news. It aims to provide 400 beds in Cork City, Mallow, Bantry and Tralee.
"Care of older people is at the top of our agenda and funding from the National Development Plan alone could not meet the cost of community nursing units for our growing older population," it said.
Each unit will provide all the services of a community hospital complex except acute care, as this will be provided in the local general acute hospital, the SHB says. The units are to be located in areas which have acute hospitals.
The SHB also has 19 community hospitals which provide continuing care, acute care and rehabilitation in areas where there are no other acute hospital services.
This is the second week in a row in which the SHB has had good news from the Cork-based Minister.
Last week, Mr Martin announced his approval for the construction of a €75 million maternity unit at Cork University Hospital.
The new unit will have 150 beds for obstetrics and pregnancy-related gynaecology and 50 cots for neonatal services.
It will replace the services currently being provided at St Finbarr's Hospital and at the Ernville Hospital and has been designed to facilitate approximately 7,000 births annually, which will meet the anticipated birth rate locally.
Yesterday's announcement marks the start of the Public Private Partnership initiative in the health sector.
Mr Martin has set up a Public Private Partnership unit in his Department to co-ordinate the projects announced yesterday.
They are seen as pilot projects which will help to provide a framework for future public private partnerships.
Up to the present, community nursing units have been fully financed by health boards and 15 have been created since 1998.
Estimates suggest that in the next nine years, the population aged 65 years and older will grow by 23 per cent.
"In order to cope with the anticipated demand, it will be necessary to significantly expand current services," the Minister's statement said.
"The provision of the additional beds to be provided under the pilot PPP programme will free up acute hospital beds, where older people may be inappropriately placed, and provide a higher quality of care for those people who require the various services provided by community nursing units."