Nursing home owners are warning that smaller care homes will be forced to close despite demand for more spaces because of rising costs. Photograph: iStockNursing home owners are warning that smaller care homes will be forced to close despite demand for more spaces because of rising costs.
Nursing home operators say there is a wide disparity in the rates paid for nursing home beds by the State through the Fair Deal scheme, which subsidises the cost of nursing home care for patients in private nursing homes. Under Fair Deal, private patients pay 80 per cent of their income and 7.5 per cent of their assets, with some exceptions, every year and the State tops that up to a set rate.
The report also notes that financial support for Dublin’s public nursing home beds is 44 per cent higher than the private nursing home rate. While planning applications for nursing homes were up 25 per cent nationally over 2020, the figure for Connacht and Ulster where Fair Deal rate are lower was down 40 per cent, the report says.