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HSE Service Plan Ignores Growth in Older Demographic

Thursday December 20, 2018

Rationalising older person residential care is unacceptable

20th December 2018

Today’s HSE Service Plan projects the numbers requiring nursing home care will be dramatically reduced during year 2019. The 2019 Service Plan commits to fund an average 23,042 person. This is a 191 person reduction on numbers funded by the scheme at the end of September (23,233) and 292 person reduction on numbers the 2018 Service Plan has projected to fund (23,334).

Tadhg Daly, NHI CEO states: “The HSE is unilaterally reducing the number of people who will be funded under the Fair Deal in 2019 despite the increased care requirements of our ageing population. This will lead to an escalation in the number of older people remaining in our hospitals while they await nursing home care. We are very concerned care of older people could be jeopardised by this plan given that two-thirds of the hundreds of people delayed discharged in our acute hospitals require nursing home care.”

“Making older people wait longer than four weeks to access a bed under Fair Deal will exacerbate delayed discharges, which are a significant factor in record overcrowding in our hospitals”

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Tadhg Daly, NHI CEO is available for further interview. Contact Michael McGlynn, NHI Communications and Research Executive at 087 9082970 or 01 4699806.