Madam, – I refer to the report by Michael Parsons (Home News, June 11th) on the plight of Gahan House older person care facility in Graiguenamagh, which a campaign group claim is threatened with closure due the new nursing homes standards being implemented by Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
Unfortunately this care facility is not alone in its difficulties in complying with the new nursing home standards. I know of a number of west of Ireland nursing homes which have been given compliance action plans by Hiqa but do not have the funds to implement them and face being closed down.
The problem appears to lie in the low Fair Deal nursing home fee being paid by the HSE to nursing homes in the west of the country vis-a-vis the east.
The average Fair Deal nursing home fee for the 85 nursing homes in Dublin is €1,055 per week, whereas the average Fair Deal fee for the 16 nursing homes in Co Mayo is €717 per week. There is a clear inequity here, as the Hiqa nursing home standards apply equally to all nursing homes in the country, regardless of the Fair Deal price that they are receiving from the State.
Clearly, nursing homes in the east of the country are in a better financial position to fund the changes required in their nursing homes under the new nursing homes standards compared to nursing homes in the west by virtue of the higher fees being paid to them.
Unfortunately, like the residents of Gahan House, older people in the west of Ireland will suffer as a result of this Fair Deal nursing home fee dichotomy. – Yours, etc,