Number of complaints to Ombudsman about nursing homes doubles

Charges hiked for residents’ social activity Ombudsman deals with 3,021 cases in total

THE number of complaints about private nursing homes has more than doubled in the space of a year, the Ombudsman’s latest annual report reveals.

One man complained his parents had ‘social programme’ charges doubled at their nursing home from €86 to €173 each per month.

These are charges for providing recreational activities for residents, such as creative classes, tours, talks or other entertainment.

They are not covered by the Government’s Fair Deal scheme and such charges should be set out and agreed with each resident in their contract for care.

In total, Ombudsman Peter Tyndall received 3,021 complaints about providers of public services last year.

His report highlighted how complaints about private nursing homes jumped from 30 in 2016 to 63 in 2017.

In the case involving the ‘social programme’ charges, the nursing home argued it was necessary as the previous year’s programme ran at a loss and to allow for increased social activities.

However, the contract for care listed only an overall charge for entertainment and gave no breakdown of the charge.

The Ombudsman considered that the contract did not comply with the regulations, as it should have set out the content of the social programme and allowed residents’ input into what activities would take place. The contract should also allow residents to opt out of paying for activities that they could not avail of.

The investigation of the complaint led to the home introducing a more detailed contract, and only a nominal fee for residents who could not take part in certain activities.

The State’s public service watchdog also reported 852 complaints involving local authorities, mostly relating to planning and housing issues.

Government departments received the most complaints at 953 cases, with 655 of these about the Department of Social Protection alone.

But the Ombudsman fully upheld only 79 complaints relating to Social Protection, a rate of just 12pc.

There was also an increased number of complaints about the local authority sector.

This is said to have been due to a rise in planning enforcement complaints, 114 in 2017 compared with 95 in 2016, and housing cases, 379 compared with 364 in 2016.

The health and social care sector had a combined 608 complaints.

In a separate development, Nursing Homes Ireland is today hosting an event for Oireachtas members to highlight what it says is a “great inequity” within the Fair Deal scheme.

Chief executive Tadhg Daly said HSE nursing homes are being paid fees per resident that are 60pc above those payable to their private and voluntary counterparts.

Mr Daly added: “We will be calling upon TDs and senators to press for publication of the review of the Fair Deal pricing mechanism, which is now delayed a year.”

He said this would “facilitate an important discussion regarding the funding of the care needs of persons requiring nursing home care”.