The Minister for Health and the National Treatment Purchase Fund has been strongly urged by Age Action Ireland to clarify exactly what cuts are being made to payments to nursing homes under the Nursing Home Support Scheme.
Correspondence publicised this week by the Irish Patients Association shows that the NTPF has offered one home a rate of €1,050 per bed per week under the Fair Deal scheme – a cut of €60 per week. Age Action has asked for clarification on whether nursing home owners were being encouraged by NTPF officials to pass these cuts on to their nursing home residents.

Age Action Ireland are concerned about these cuts and have urged the Minister for Health to provide transparency on the matter. A spokesman for the organisation, Eamon Timminshas said “Under the Fair Deal scheme the State currently takes 80% of a person’s disposable income along with up to 22.5% of the value of their home.”

He went on to say “For somebody on a State Pension, they are left with just €44 per week to pay for other essential costs which are not covered by the Fair Deal, such as chiropody, physiotherapy, specialised wheelchairs, the prescription charge for their medications, toiletries and hairdressing. To suggest that a mandatory charge now be introduced for social activities in a bid to pick up the tab for cost cutting by the State, will leave many older people in penury and choosing between which of these other essential services they will have to go without.”