No room for old folks

An ‘impending crisis’ looms for the elderly people of Clare, writes Dan Danaher

An “impending crisis” looms for elderly people with complex medical conditions that require long-term residential care in facilities over the coming years.

Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) announced this week it will lobby Clare politicians to highlight the chronic shortage of new long stay accommodation facilities to deal with the dramatic projected increase in the county’s elderly population.

The Clare Champion has learned only two new nursing homes were built in Limerick and Clare over the last five years – Athlunkard Nursing Home, Westbury, which has 43 beds in total and St Michael’s Nursing Home, Limerick, which has 35 beds.

Clare families are waiting on average up to 49 days for Fair Deal funding to be sanctioned before a relative can be accepted in a public or private nursing home.

The number of Clare people over the age of 65 is already over the national average and is expected to increase to 12.5% by 2021.

Already the ESRI has projected an additional requirement of 13,324 long-term residential care places – 888 per annum will be needed until 2021.

The Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) confirmed the ESRI projections and anticipates the number of people requiring nursing home care will jump by at least 59% between 2006 and 2021.

According to the HSE National Operational Plan, there will be a significant national deficit of long stay beds by 2016, based on its target of 4% of older people in long stay care and population projections.

There are 11 nursing homes in Clare providing essential care for 618 residents, employing 610 people directly.
Private and voluntary providers have rejected a claim by the Government that there is no need for the immediate establishment of a  forum on Long-Term Residential Care.

The NHI has launched a new campaign highlighting the issues facing the provision of private and voluntary nursing home care and the actions required to plan ongoing and future long-term residential care requirements. Due to reduced public provision, the NHI has warned the significant demand in requirements will have to be met by the private and voluntary sector.

The main aim of the campaign is to secure the establishment of a Department of Health-led Forum on Long-Term Residential Care, which would bring together all of the relevant stakeholders involved in the provision of such care for older people.

Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, said the forum is a vital requirement because of the increasing demand for long term residential.

NHI Clare representative Frances Neilan also expressed concern about the ability of the voluntary and private sector to meet the dramatic projected increase in the elderly population.

Ms Neilan, of Carrigoran House Nursing Home, pointed out most of the county’s nursing homes are already operating at full or very close to full capacity, before the ESRI report on the projected increase in elderly population over the next 10 years is factored in.

She warned new nursing home investors face the classic “chicken and egg scenario” as they need to get a Fair Deal price for the cost of care and be able to show they could repay their loan at this price. The provision of nursing homes is becoming a less attractive investment for developers because of the cost of compliance with new HIQA guidelines.

While the current capacity for Carrigoran House is 113 registered beds, she noted the facility has a waiting list, depending on the time of the year, which can be anything up to 20 for long term residential care.

The specialised care service for Alzheimer’s has a longer waiting time due to the lack of available beds in the area. Sometimes elderly people on a waiting list seek alternative accommodation if they are waiting for up to six months for a bed.

She said one of the challenges facing the sector is the huge disparity in the cost of care provided to public nursing homes and the private and voluntary sector.

She stated public long stay care is paid €1,200 to €2,100 a week to deliver care to residents compared to an average of €700 paid in the private and voluntary sector, which is determined by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

She added private nursing homes provide very good value for money compared to the acute hospital sector, which can cost in excess of €1,000 daily.