A survey from the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation has revealed that there has been a significant slowdown in the supply of nursing home beds.
The survey, which was published today, showed that 14 nursing homes closed last year.
At the launch, INHO CEO Tadhg Daly called for a clear commitment to the development of an integrated and long-term strategy on care of older people in society, in which the nursing home sector would play 'an integral and coherent role'.
The survey revealed that there has been an increase of only 187 beds in 2006, compared with an increase of over 1,200 beds in 2005.
The east coast, northern and south western areas all experienced a fall in the number of beds in 2006. While 16 new homes opened in 2006, a total of 14 nursing homes closed.
Since the first such survey in 2003, there has been an overall increase in bed supply of 19.8%, with the western area seeing the greatest increase in the number of beds in that period.
Extra capacity
The survey found the average occupancy nationally to be 89.4%.
This represents an increase of over 3% on the corresponding figure last year. The INHO said this supports its call for Minister for Health Mary Harney to make use of vacant private nursing home beds to alleviate the pressure on the long-term acute hospital system.
Mr Daly said that at any one time there is a capacity of 2,000 nursing home beds nationally, said those beds could be used to remove people from the acute hospital system.
For the first time the survey reported on the numbers of staff from overseas employed in private nursing homes.
Amongst survey respondents, on average 43% of their nursing staff were comprised of individuals from overseas.
The survey also revealed that the national average staff cost per registered bed, at €17, 216, had increased by 7% over the past year.
On average, nursing homes were inspected 2.2 times in the last year, which complies with the legislative provision to undertake inspections every six months.
Mr Daly emphasised that the INHO was continuing to work towards a situation where the general public could have 'full confidence in every nursing home in the country'.
