Give small nursing homes same terms as HSE facilities

JUST before Christmas last year my family had to evacuate our home because we experienced an outbreak of carbon monoxide. This was a very stressful incident as it resulted in the family being moved from one location to the next on a daily basis throughout December 2021, up until March.

The biggest impact was on my elderly mother Teresa; who has multiple health issues and is heading for 90 years of age.

Discussions with our family doctor commenced and respite care was considered.

To make a long story short, this episode led me to contact a small local private nursing home. I found personnel there be more switched on to the needs of my elderly mother compared to the larger HSE-run facilities.

At the beginning, I was a little anxious.

However, when I arrived, I discovered a staff that were very friendly and caring; hence the old proverb ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’.

To my surprise, my mother settled in very quickly and a longterm option was contemplated. The rationale behind my mother’s decision was very simple; she had found a uniquely human experience, a family atmosphere and homelike environment.

The benefits of a smaller nursing home became glaringly obvious, as I discovered that patients receive a better one-toone caring relationship with staff. I have even got to know one of the owners Joe, who constantly rolls up his sleeves and can be found painting, cutting the grass, cutting the hedges, fixing windows/doors and very often simply sitting down having a cup of tea, chatting with the residents.

I forgot to mention that my mother has two sisters in other larger HSE-run nursing homes; however, the atmosphere is nothing like this home.

Take all of this into account and the fact that smaller private nursing homes receive far less funding to that of the larger HSE facilities. In addition, the smaller private nursing homes staff are still waiting for their fair share of the €1,000 Covid bonus already paid to HSE workers.

■ Why is this discrimination being tolerated?

■ Why was this disparity not addressed in our recent Budget?

■ Were the smaller nursing homes and their staff not in the frontline of the Covid crisis, when we needed them most?

Yet, we the relatives and our

loved ones receive a superior quality of care from our small local healthcare provider in contrast to larger facilities, which are treated more favourably by the guardians of this State.

Ger Tobin, Co. Cork.

Queen and the North

INDICATIONS have been recently emerging that the ‘mood music’ in terms of the Protocol and Anglo-Irish relationships generally, has changed for the better.

It seems that Queen Elizabeth, even in the days after she died, continued to influence, for the better, the melody for relationships on these islands as their political luminaries assembled to pay their respects.

One can only hope that how we

manage our business and interdependencies as close neighbours in the coming years will leave her at rest in peace.

Michael Gannon, Kilkenny city.

Dirty dancing?

IS THERE anything left these days that we can put our confidence, faith and toe struts into?

Are we to finally curtsey or twirl to the assertion there are sneaky pirouettes of fixing going on in the world of Irish dancing?

If true, then there is no time to waltz around, drag our feet, sit with ambivalence on our comfy rocking chair, side-stepping the matter. We need to immediately get confidence and integrity back where it belongs, scissor-kicking out any rogues who might be twisting the night away in their world of unscrupulous dirty dancing.