Cowley warns of further nursing home closures

A RURAL GP has warned that the future of small, rural-based community nursing units is bleak unless they are provided with financial support to provide the service in the community.

Mulranny-based GP and Chairman of St Brendan's Nursing Unit in the west Mayo village, Dr Jerry Cowley, has warned that small rural nursing homes like St Brendan's face closure due to rising costs and lack of financial support from the Government.

A Dáil debate in June heard that since 2020, 34 private and voluntary nursing homes in the State have closed their doors, with a loss of more than 1,002 beds.

Dr Cowley warned that before the end of the year up to 40 nursing homes could be forced to close if they do not receive financial support to keep them open.

“When I started off 80 percent of nursing home care was done by the State and not for profits but the state contracted that down to private companies and now it is 80 percent private and 20 percent State. We in Mulranny are not for profit but classed as private. The HSE run units do the exact same work as we do with the same number of residents but get 60 percent more funding than we do from the same Fair Deal scheme.

“If we were treated equally they would get more and we would not be in danger. Our long term viability is being greatly threatened because we are not being treated equally. We are not private, we are not for profit but because we are not HSE we are classed as private. Non-HSE equals private but that is not true.

“We are the ones who want to keep going for another 25 years but will we be able to do that, that is the question?” the former Mayo TD told The Mayo News.

Market taken over

Dr Cowley warned that the nursing home market is being taken over by large conglomerates and these larger nursing homes will be located in large towns and cities. If community nursing homes are allowed to close, he said that elderly people will not be able to live in their own community.

“There are private nursing homes who are based in the community who are struggling and I have sympathy for them. They need to be helped but what is happening is they will leave the market and will be taken over by these conglomerates who are all for profit. There are 15 companies who own 50 percent of the beds and several of those are not Irish at all.

“With 31 nursing homes closing, that is 1,200 people, the most vulnerable people. Places like this are their home and if St Brendan's closes where are they to go. They are going to go to these super homes with 200 beds.

“The big danger is they will have the government over a barrel because they will own everything. They will say to the government you will have to pay us so much to operate this and it will be all about giving them enough to keep their investors happy. They will expand the big nursing homes in towns and take the people from here.

“The reason the number of beds are not going down is because the number of nursing homes with 100 plus beds have doubled in recent years while 31 have closed. By the end of the year there will be 40 closed and I hope we are not one of them,” he said.

St Brendan's Nursing Unit opened in 1998 but its capacity has been reduced from 36 beds to a current capacity of 24. Dr Cowley said that because of the income deficit from beds and increased operational costs they are running at a financial loss.

Former TD Dr Jerry Cowley believes more services could be lost in rural Ireland if the Government don't act

New campaign

As a result a campaign 'Save St Brendan's' has been launched with fundraising campaigns in the pipeline to raise money to build two extra rooms to help make the service financially viable.

Dr Cowley explained that St Brendan's was founded in order to allow elderly people to live their last years in their own community. Of the 31 nursing homes which have closed since 2020, only four were in the Dublin region and he said if the small rural nursing homes cannot stay open it will result in the loss of another service for rural Ireland.

“It is going to be a big problem and they [the Government] are going to look back and ask how in the hell did they allow this to happen. This is about rural Ireland and another service going in rural Ireland.

“If you lose services, you lose people. This is a service, the post office is a service, a school is a service and a doctor is a service. If you have the services you will retain the people and if you lose the services you will lose the people. This is a service. The reason this village is so prosperous is because of St Brendan's. We were the biggest employer for the last 25 years and we want to be able to continue to offer that service.

“The Minister says they are in favour not for profit but at the same time there are massive deals being done all the time for multi-conglomerate nursing homes with 100 plus beds. They are not about providing local services, they are about money and big businesses.

“We are integrated in the community and we are the model going forward. This is a rural service which needs to be retained to look after the most vulnerable in society,” he said.