Huge difference between public and private nursing home costs in Kilkenny

The difference in cost between private and public nursing home beds in Kilkenny was recently raised at the Joint Committee on Health.

Deputy Colm Burke called attention to the difference in costs between beds in public and private nursing homes in Kilkenny during the meeting. 

“Kilkenny is the best example of all, where the average cost of a public bed in a public nursing home is more than €2,000 per week, as for the average cost of a private nursing home bed, they are getting slightly over €1,000 per bed per week. There is a differential of 98.5% in Kilkenny,” said the Cork North-Central TD.

The Deputy was asking the witnesses from the Department about the plans for the winter months and for dealing with the demand for beds, as well as step-down facilities and nursing homes. 

The purpose of the meeting was for the joint committee to receive an update on the implementation of Sláintecare reforms from representatives from the Department of Health and the HSE with particular focus on manpower planning.

The Deputy went on to say that over 41 nursing homes have closed in the past four years, with 1,200 beds ‘gone’ out of the system.

“What are we doing as regards making sure that we can get people out of hospital into step-down facilities and the contracts with the private nursing home sector, if the beds are not available in the public nursing homes?,” he asked the attendants. 

In attendance was Ms Rachel Kenna, chief nursing officer and Ms Breda Rafter, principal officer for workforce planning from the Department of Health, as well as the department secretary general Robert Watt

From the HSE, was Mr Bernard Gloster, CEO, Mr Dean Sullivan, chief strategy officer, Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical officer, Ms Anne Marie Hoey, national director, Mr Liam Woods, national director and Ms Sheila McGuinness, national lead on the waiting list action plan. 

Mr Bernard Gloster said that with regard to step-down beds and their use, the delayed transfers of care have now gone from a ‘consistent 600 plus in March to below 500’ and are targeted to go further below that. 

“Separate to the Private Hospitals Association, I am considering the approach to a long-term framework for step-down beds from the private nursing home sector, which is different to the private hospitals. That takes some time to get through,” he said.

He added that he has nothing to do with the pricing of the nursing home support scheme, but he explained that the cost of public nursing homes differ because of ‘staffing numbers, pay scales and terms and conditions’ and also because of levels of ‘dependency’.

Mr Robert Watt said that ‘there is a large differential’ and referenced a review done by Mr Tom Ferris, a former senior civil servant, to explain the difference in detail. 

He added that there was another review done that reflects the complexity of cases and the different needs that patients have.

“It reflects different terms and conditions in the public sector versus the private sector,” he said.