Nursing home closures have a huge impact on hospital overcrowding.
Nursing Homes Ireland says five nursing homes have closed in Cork in recent years adding pressure to a health system which already recognises that Cork University Hospital is the second most overcrowded hospital in the country
NHI is calling on the Government to increase the funding of the Fair Deal scheme which helps pay for the cost of a person's care in a private nursing home.
Speaking to RedFM News Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland says hospitals are full of people who should be in nursing homes:
"If I appear at the CUH, and if there is no if I can't get in because the hospital is already full of people who should be out in the community that has an impact on everybody, so we do need to have a well functioning nursing home sector, to ensure that the hospitals can do what they do and the nursing home sector can provide that community care as well because people need to stay in their own communities."
