Age Action has welcomed the announcement by Health Minister James Reilly that the Fair Deal nursing home support scheme is to recommence approving applications.
The announcement followed the discovery that €100 million ear-marked to fund nursing home beds under the scheme had been diverted by the HSE to pay for drugs and therapies. This was now being restored to enable applications to be processed and approved.
“This is very welcome news for some of the sickest and frailest of older people who were awaiting a nursing home bed and who experienced considerable distress over the last 48 hours since new admissions under the scheme were suspended pending a decision on further funding,” Age Action spokesman Eamon Timmins said.
“Our information service was inundated by distraught callers earlier today, many of whom were in tears as a result of the uncertainty caused by the suspension of the scheme,” he said.
The older people’s charity hoped the Minister’s continuing review of the Fair Deal scheme would ensure it received adequate funding so that everyone who needed a nursing bed would get one.
