Another family-run nursing home has announced that it will close due to high running costs, continuing the trend of small nursing home closures seen into this year.
Corrandulla Nursing Home, the 21-bed nursing home near Claregalway, opened in 1990 in a former monastery that dates back to the 1850s.
Higher energy costs were cited as the main reason for the closure of the Co Galway nursing home, which is owned and run by the Hayden family.
Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, the representative body for private nursing homeowners, said that it was a “tragedy to see another small, family-run, community-based facility closing.”
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He said the private nursing home sector had been calling on Government to address the “huge disconnect” between the fees set by Government under the Fair Deal subsidy scheme for nursing home care and the “incessant cost pressure” of providing high quality care.
Mr Daly said the difficulties facing nursing homes were “challenging and ongoing, unfortunately, with massive consequences for nursing homes and the wider health sector.”
Last year 18 small, privately run nursing homes announced they would be closing with the loss of 545 beds with most blaming increased energy and staff overheads and the cost of meeting higher regulatory expectations on their operations and properties.
Galway was badly hit by care facility closures with Oughterard Manor, Kiltormer and Castleturvin nursing homes all announcing their closures last year with the loss of 112 beds.
The Department of Health is exploring the possibility of continuing a funding scheme introduced in November to help nursing homes cope with higher running costs.
It has been in talks with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to expand the scope of the temporary inflation payment scheme (Tips), the €10 million scheme to help nursing homes reduce the cost of higher electricity and gas bills as a result of energy inflation.
Other measures, including an extension of a separate funding scheme to help nursing homes with costs relating to Covid-19 outbreaks known as the temporary assistance payment scheme (Taps), are also being considered for a sector struggling with rising running costs.
