Private nursing homes beds are empty in every health board area while seriously-ill patients are lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, an Irish Nursing Homes Organisation (INHO) conference has been told.
In the past nine years, the number of beds in private nursing homes increased by 60 per cent, Mr Seán Collins, INHO's chairman, told the conference in Dublin yesterday. The number of private nursing home beds increased by 10 per cent in the past year yet bed occupancy fell by 2.2 per cent to 86.8 per cent.
Mr Collins said the State must begin contracting beds from private nursing homes again. This would be better value for money than giving acute beds to patients who were not seriously ill, he said.
Mr Con Quigley, managing partner of Horwath Bastow Charleton business consultants, said nursing home owners should carefully consider any further investment in their operations, in view of the oversupply.
In August, 47 applications had been lodged for planning permission for new nursing homes, he said. A further 22 applications were seeking extensions to existing nursing homes. There were a lot of second-hand nursing homes on the market and buyers were scarce.
Mr Paul Costello, INHO's chief executive, said money was often a factor when older people were put in hospitals instead of nursing homes. The maximum Government contribution (subvention) to a nursing home place was €190 a week yet some homes cost from €700 upwards.
If a patient had a hospital bed and the family could not afford a nursing home, they were not going to take the relative out of hospital.
Mr Costello called for an increase in the subvention and said it was time for a "root- and-branch" review of the funding of care for older people. He called for an end to capital allowances - the tax breaks which allowed developers to offset the cost of everything, bar the site, against tax over a six-year period.
Ms Liz McManus, Labour's spokeswoman on health, said about €2 billion was lost to the Exchequer last year due to property tax breaks.
Mr Seán Power, Minister of State for Health, said the total nursing home subvention had increased from €5 million in 1993 to €110 million last year and he hoped the Budget would bring more good news to the nursing home sector.
