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Martin apologises for nursing home cash scandalBy: Katie Hannon
Health Minister Micheál Martin has apologised to the elderly people and their families who were affected by the nursing homes subvention scandal. A report into the operation of the Nursing Home Subvention Scheme by the Ombudsman found that elderly patients were illegally denied money owed to them by the State to help pay for their nursing home care. It also found that some health boards did not allow vulnerable elderly patients to keep the small amounts of pocket money they were entitled to have under the law. Fine Gael spokesman on health, Gay Mitchell, told the Dáil last night that the report makes truly terrible reading. “Systematically, the law was flouted, elderly people had their meagre savings taken and even recently there seemed doubt as to whether these people or their families would be compensated,” he said. Minister Martin apologised to those affected and confirmed that the Department of Health has instructed the health boards to take immediate steps to pay all the outstanding arrears. About £900,000 has been repaid to elderly people and their families to date. While it is anticipated that the final bill will run to £6m, the Minister said it was not possible to give a figure for the total cost of the repayments at present. Fine Gael’s Denis Naughten said there were many other instances in which the health boards were giving elderly people a raw deal. Deputy Naughten referred to a constituent who was moved by the health board out of her nursing home six weeks before she died because the nursing home was increasing its charges. Mr Naughten also accused health boards of denying elderly patients access to physiotherapy while they are in nursing homes. Elderly patients were also being denied incontinence wear, he said. The Health Minister said he intends to introduce performance management indicators across all health boards to accurately measure the performance of the health services. He referred the Ombudsman’s report to the Joint Committee on Health and Children which must now complete its report on the issue within a period of six months.
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