No new Northside nursing home beds

NO NEW nursing home facilities are planned for North Dublin despite the crippling bed-blocking problem in hospitals due to a lack of access to nursing home beds for non-acute patients.

The HSE recently revealed that no new facilities are currently planned in the North Dublin area due to the public service recruitment embargo.

The matter was recently raised by local TD Patrick Nulty (Lab) who asked the Department of Health to report on what measures were being taken to address the lack of access to both private and public nursing home beds.

The department passed on the query to the HSE and in response an official said that

“considerable investment has taken place by the HSE in the provision of new and replacement public long stay care facilities in the North Dublin area over the past five years

?.

The official cited the opening of 100 beds in St Vincent’s in Fairview and 100 beds in St Joseph’s in Raheny between 2011 and 2012 as well as additional bed openings in St Mary’s Hospital in the Phoenix Park in 2008/09 and the Orthopaedic Hospital in Clontarf in 2008/10.

The HSE official stated that the

“provision of additional private bed capacity is subject to development funding being made available by banks

?.

According to Deputy Nulty, who put down the parliamentary question, there is also a severe lack of access to specialty nursing home beds for people with dementia, acquired brain injury and youths with chronic illnesses.

In response to this the official for the HSE explained how under the Nursing Home Support Scheme, applicants may choose to avail of long term residential care services in either public or private facilities that are suitable to meet their needs.

“It is the responsibility of the

‘person in charge’ of a nursing home to satisfy themselves that they can meet the clinical needs of any applicant for admission,

? the official stated.

In January of this year, the HSE announced plans to close between 555 and 898 public nursing home beds over 2012.

It also announced its intention to reduce the number of home help hours it provides by 500,000.

Speaking to Northside People, a spokesperson for the older person’s charity Age Action said that these cuts would have a devastating effect on the elderly.

“We know of the issue of bed-blocking where there is a lack of access to step-down care and nursing home beds for patients who have finished their acute medical care,

? he stated.

“However, the cut to home help hours means that those who could live at home independently with the support of home help hours will now be left with little option but to go into a nursing home.

“The loss of so many public beds and the scale of the cuts in the home help service provided by the HSE will undoubtedly be felt by the sickest and most dependent of older people.

?