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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.
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.”
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Funny that these nursing homes seems to close down to burn out but can open up again as a refugees centers
@Paul Maguire: 12 of them so far…
@Paul Maguire: And the old hotel in Rosslare that had planning permission for a nursing home, which is badly needed.
They want to put up to 400 of them in there.
@Paul Maguire: refugees don’t need 24hr nursing and healthcare support
@J M: Regardless, the government can spend €1.88 million per day on IPO refugees and €2 billion per year on Ukrainian refugees.
Why can’t our own elderly take precedence, however much it costs to keep the nursing homes open?
@Finn Barr: and how much gets spent on care homes? Cause none of them are state run, most are owned by investment funds far away. Care homes are a license to print money
@Paul Maguire: What an absolute disgrace… so where are we going to locate these vulnerable residents who have worked hard and deserve so much respect- in a freaking p@xy tent??
As someone who lost 4 Grandparents in Nursing homes, all I can say is F the ‘Fair Deal’ scheme…nothing fair about it and with an aging population, the future looks even more bleak than ever.
What next in this excuse for a Government of which I actually used to champion… turning off ICU ventilators to conserve energy?? FFS.
@Donna Fallon:
@Donna Fallon: you are some melt in fairness
This is why they want to introduce euthanasia. No country for old men
(or women, children, those who become sick, disabled, or just an average person hoping to work & buy a home)
Nobody here said it was easy to open or run a nursing home. It’s clearly not, but as a society we should be looking after our elderly & infirm. The government needs to either provide care or help those that want to. Unfortunately citizens requiring round the clock care seem to be low priority in this country at the moment
They get enough money already. What do get do 2,000 a week? My sisters in a care home. They take 80% pension they get 22% of value her house. When she dies
@Jane Waters: This would be a really interesting answer to: What does is cost on average, without a profit margin, to host someone in a nursing home.
I would guess, because you mentioned paying 2k, it will be 1,500/week.
And this, I have to say, does not sound too unrealistic.
New business opportunities for those on here moaning and who dont have a clue, to open their own nursing home, seeing as it is so easy
Providing care is very expensive so if you want the government to do it taxes would have to go up. Everybody wants the gov to provide everything but don’t want to pay for it.
@Gerry R:
That’s one of the problems with Irish tax/PRSI system.
I just did the online calculator Ireland/Germany with my current income.
I would have €70 less in Germany in net pay.
But: About 8k (!!!) less in tax.
Over 3 x times more I would have paid in social charges (health insurance, unemployment benefits, care insurance).
Why does Ireland have a high tax?
Because (at least in Germany) it’s all half the the employee and the other half the employee.
That would be roughly 25% of my salary the employer would have to pay on top of my salary. That’s a huge increase of what they have currently to pay.
Another part of the “Tax Haven” Ireland is today.
have your say