FIFTY NURSING HOMES have closed in the four-year period between 2019 and 2022, with “burnout” and “financial viability” being cited among the reasons for this.

The findings are part of the latest report on the monitoring and regulation of nursing homes by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

At the end of 2019, there were 585 registered nursing homes in Ireland, but this fell to 557 as of the end of last year.

In 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic, there were nine nursing home closures.

These nursing home closures more than trebled in the following year to 21, dipped to nine closures in 2021, and rose again last year to 14.

While these closures in 2019 were offset by ten new nursing homes opening, this was not the case for the following years.

In 2020, 11 new nursing homes opened, three opened in 2021, and four last year.

Private providers owned and operated 77% of nursing homes at the end of last year.

All 14 nursing homes which closed last year were privately operated and they cited a number of reasons for these closures.

This includes concerns about financial viability, staffing difficulties, and burnout following the Covid pandemic.

These private providers that closed nursing homes also said there was a “recognition that operating a nursing home was not an attractive career proposition for the next generation”.

HIQA also noted that these closures are having a “disproportionate impact on some counties, especially in the west of the country”.

Meanwhile, regulation was cited as a reason for a small number of closures.

Nursing beds

At the end of 2019, there were 31,969 nursing home beds, but at the end of last year, this fell to 31,674.

In 2022, 69 nursing homes also reduced the number of beds they provided.

Most said this decision was taken to reduce the occupancy for rooms to ensure residents had 7.4m2 of space, and to ensure there were no more than four residents accommodated in a bedroom.

Both of these are required by an update to the regulations that occurred in January 2022.

Between 2019 and 2022, only five counties experienced a net increase in available nursing home beds.

The biggest net increase during this four-year period was in Dublin, with a net increase of 248 in nursing home beds.

This was followed by Meath with a net increase of 187, then Louth with a net increase of 106, then Waterford on 78, and Kildare on 13.

There was no change during this period in Mayo.

The other 20 counties experienced a net decrease in nursing home beds, ranging from a decrease of three in Longford, to 101 in Roscommon and 111 in Galway.

As of the end of 2022, Dublin had the largest number of available nursing home beds at 8,433, while Leitrim had the fewest with 242.

HIQA said this “reduction in availability of nursing home beds may mean that people have to move out of their local area, and this move can leave people further away from family and friends”.

“This in turn can lead to greater isolation and loneliness at a time when they are experiencing significant change in their life,” said the HIQA report.

Nursing Homes Ireland said the report “lays bare the State’s failure to older people in need of nursing home care”.

It said that without the private and voluntary sector, there would have been a shortage of beds.

Nursing Homes Ireland added that closures are “having an impact on older people and their families, with people having to travel further to access care and for families to visit residents, which is bad for older people and for the environment”.

Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson David Cullinane the “growing pace of nursing home closures is a cause of serious concern”.

He added: “Government has no joint-up plan for care for older people, and it shows.”