Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) members will begin to visit all TDs and Senators across the country during this week’s break in parliamentary proceedings to highlight an impending crisis in care.

The private and voluntary providers have rejected a claim by the Government that there is not a need for the immediate establishment of a Department of Health-led Forum on Long-Term Residential Care. 

The national campaign will highlight the ‘serious issues’ facing the provision of private and voluntary nursing home care and the actions required to plan ongoing and future long-term residential care requirements.  

As part of the campaign, 360 NHI members will visit all TDs, Senators and Councillors across the country in their constituencies. 

This is the first large-scale campaign by the private and voluntary nursing home sector. It will involve adverts, postcards and letters targeted at politicians, key stakeholders and the wider public. The campaign will set out the challenges in care delivery and the urgent requirement to address sector requirements to meet escalating growth in demand for such care.  

The main aim of the campaign is to secure the establishment of a Department of Health-led ‘Forum on Long-Term Residential Care’ which would bring together all of the relevant stakeholders involved in the provision of such care for older people.

Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, says that this Forum is a vital requirement because of the increasing demand for long term residential care and also the threat to the sustainability of the nursing home sector:

“The Forum on Long-Term Residential Care is an absolute necessity to address the growing healthcare demands of our ageing population and to plan accordingly. There has been too many reports, too much talk and not enough action.” 

“The Department of Health must bring those who play a role in the provision of long-term residential care and older people’s representatives around the table to map out the future of nursing home care and implement an appropriate framework to meet the significant growing requirement for it.   There is an obligation on all stakeholders to ensure that we plan now to meet the challenge of growing and funding the best possible residential care services for our older people. Otherwise, we are going to be catapulted into a crisis in care.”

“We cannot keep dodging the issues as a society or we will cause major stress to older people and put the livelihoods of over 22,000 private and voluntary nursing home employees in jeopardy. We need real and meaningful action from Government now or there will be significant consequences for employment, for our residential care capacity and most importantly, for our ageing population.”

“The number of older people in Ireland is going to rise dramatically in the years ahead. Yet, there has been no meaningful engagement to put in place the infrastructure to deal with this. Private and voluntary nursing homes must be provided with the framework to enable them meet the significant pressures being placed upon them arising from a population that is living longer and bringing with it increased demand for specialised care.”