Increase in nursing home beds

[Posted: Mon 07/04/2008 by Niall Hunter, Editor www.irishhealth.com]

There has been a significant increase in the number of private and voluntary nursing home beds in Ireland over the past year, according to a new report. 

The survey, carried out by Nursing Homes Ireland, has found that there has been an overall increase of 974 private nursing home beds since last year.

Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, said the survey showed that staff costs in nursing homes increased by 21% in the past year. 

He said increasingly, private and and voluntary nursing homes are taking the pressure off acute hospitals by providing care for residents with complex medical needs. 

The survey shows that over half of the residents of nursing homes are in the high dependency category, while 33% of all residents had been diagnosed with dementia. 

Mr Daly said there is a significant and growing move in the private nursing home sector to provide specialist care such as rehabilitation and brain injury care, for example. 

Nursing Homes Ireland has called for Health Minister Mary Harney's new 'Fair Deal' nursing home funding scheme to be implemented soon in order to ensure a fair and equitable system of funding for long-term care. 

hammer  Posted: 07/04/2008 16:00

21% increase in staff costs. Wow. God help the families that have to pay for the care. Will it be 50% this year ?

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