A NURSING HOME in Cork with 73 residents has announced that it is pulling out of the Government’s Fair Deal Scheme (FDS) due to “extreme financial pressure”. 

The FDS is the statutory funding model under which the State pays a portion of a person’s nursing home fees. It covers bed and board, personal care, laundry, and basic aids, but it does not cover therapies, activities, and basics such as incontinence wear. 

Beaumont Residential Care is one of 14 nursing homes owned by the CareChoice group, which is in turn owned by the French investment fund InfraVia Capital Partners. 

The nursing home will remain open, but residents will no longer be covered by the FDS. 

The home is located in a Cork city suburb.

The CEO of CareChoice, Stuart Murphy, said that Beaumount is “deeply aware” of the “profound impact” that this decision will have on residents and their loved ones. 

Murphy said that this is because of the “approach” of the National Treatment Purchasing Fund (NTPF). 

The NTPF negotiates rates with private nursing homes on behalf of the HSE. 

Murphy added that this decision has been made as a “last resort”. 

“The reality is that Beaumont Residential Care, in common with many of our homes, is under extreme financial pressure because of the shortfall between the funding delivered by the NTPF and the actual cost of caring for our residents – a gap which has widened considerably because of the cost of living increases across the Irish economy,” Murphy said. 

He further stated that the CareChoice group has “tried and failed to persuade the NTPF to agree to “Fair Deal rates which reflect the cost of providing care”. 

“It should be noted that the Fair Deal rate we have sought for Beaumont Residential Care is lower than rates which the NTPF has already agreed with other Fair Deal providers in Cork.  

“The rate sought by Beaumont Residential Care is already €29,000 lower per resident per annum than the rates which the HSE is paying to its nursing homes to provide the same services in Cork.

“If the Fair Deal scheme residents of Beaumont Residential Care were resident in HSE nursing homes in Cork, the additional cost to the State would be €1.8 m per annum,” Murphy added. 

The chair of the CareChoice group, Jimmy Tolan, said that he is aware that this news will come as a “shock” to residents at the Cork nursing home. 

“We want the home to remain open and it is our hope that the HSE will constructively engage with us to ensure that our residents can remain in their home,” he added. 

Tolan said that the company is communicating with residents and their families to “help find solutions” for residents.