HSE publishes Fair Deal rates

The HSE has published details of the fees payable to HSE nursing homes. Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, said the figures, which are dated January 2019, could have been published by the HSE at any stage in the last six months and criticised the delay in publication. The 15 month delay had followed on from previous five years of non-publication by the HSE of its fees.

The fees paid to the private and voluntary nursing homes are published every month on the HSE website and are a matter of constant transparency.  Tadhg Daly has said that the reality is that there is no oversight of HSE spend. It continuously blocks publication of the fees its homes are paid under Fair Deal. The HSE’s continuous blocking of the publication of the fees it pays itself has consistently contravened the Department of Health’s recommendation about transparency in 2015.  When the fees were last published they revealed HSE homes were being paid an average 60% more per resident per week by comparison with private and voluntary counterparts. Within some counties HSE homes were being paid fees that were up to three times those payable to private and voluntary counterparts.