Carechoice says the funding model used to negotiate with private nursing homes on behalf of the HSE is broken.
The comments come after Carechoice announced that Beaumont Residential care home in the city is being withdrawn from the Fair Deal Scheme after a breakdown in talks with the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
Beaumont nursing home which provides care services for 73 residents say they had to opt out of the scheme as the shortfall between the funding delivered by the NTPF and the actual cost of caring for residents is too wide a gap to bridge.
Speaking to RedFM News CEO of CareChoice Stuart Murphy says he remains hopeful the issue can be resolved:
"I think the HSE need to step in, because they're the partners really. The NTPF are just a negotiating partner. And I suppose the HSE have the ability to solve this problem. They understand the problem and they'd be able to facilitate the solution to the problem. There's an opportunity here to actually address this. It is a problem we all need to address, because we all will be in this situation at some point in our future, and our population is getting older".
Meanwhile,
Speaking this morning Finance Minister Michael McGrath has reassured the residents that they will be taken care of.
The Minister told the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's RedFM that steps are being taken to resolve the issue:
"I spoke about it during the week with Minister Mary Butler. She's responsible for older persons. She met the NTPF two days ago, and she will report to government as to what the outcome of that was. But we do need to find a solution here, and I believe that we will. These residents will be looked after and the State will ensure that whatever we need to do to make sure they're looked after will happen".
