The true cost of providing nursing home care in keeping with good international practice is up to €1,100 per week per resident, a new report has found. This is about €400 per week more than the current average.
Groups representing the elderly and the nursing home sector called last night for a debate about how the cost of staying in nursing homes is funded.
The report, carried out on behalf of Age Action Ireland, is highly critical of the Department of Health's "failure" to address minimum standards for staffing levels in guidelines which it published earlier this year.
Brian McEnery, of accountants Horwath Bastow Charleton, who wrote the report, warned that the failure to set minimum standards for staffing levels had, in part, led to problems associated with Leas Cross and other homes.
"Unless there are mandatory staffing levels and unless the operator is reimbursed for employing this staffing level, then there will continue to be stories like the Leas Cross Nursing Home," he said.
Mr McEnery said staffing was an area where businesses cut back because it was such a high cost. His research found that staffing accounted for about 60 per cent of running costs.
The report, which analysed the accounts of 16 private and two publicly funded nursing homes in the State, found for private homes to provide care in line with good international practice, it would cost €1,101 per resident per week in an urban area and €994 in a rural area.
In contrast, the average private nursing home in Ireland last year charged €694.20 per week.
The report said the difference of more than €400 per week was mainly accounted for by the shortfall in the amount of care which residents in Irish nursing homes received.
The report used the standard recommended by healthcare experts Laing and Buisson in Britain, of 3.86 care hours per resident per day as the basis of appropriate care. It found the average number of care hours per resident per day last year was just over 2.4 hours for private nursing homes.
In public nursing homes, it found the average number of care hours per resident was 2.91 hours per day in the rural home examined, and 3.87 hours in the urban home.
Age Action chief executive Robin Webster said there was very little data on nursing home costs and this report was an important first step.
He said a proper debate was needed on the whole issue of quality and funding. He said the figures did not include the costs of providing therapies such as diversional therapies and physiotherapy.
Irish Nursing Homes Organisation chief executive Tadhg Daly said his organisation, which co-operated with the report, wanted to ensure good standards across all homes. He said if people had means they should contribute to their stay, but if they had not, the State should pick up the bill.