Voluminous correspondence between Ireland’s nursing homes and the HSE from late February shows that the relationship between the two became increasingly fractious in the face of Covid-19.
Care homes were so starved of personal protective equipment (PPE) at the end of March that drastic alternatives, such as painters’ goggles and overalls, were pursued.
Meanwhile, the documents reveal that the Government’s pandemic unemployment payment of €350 per week drastically reduced the nursing home sector’s workforce, due to the fact 40% of workers nationwide were earning just €100 per week for 10 hours’ work when the crisis began.
The correspondence, which is over 700 pages in length, was published by the Department of Health close to midnight on Monday ahead of an appearance by sector body Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) at the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee this morning.
They detail how contact was first made by NHI with the Department of Health regarding the coming coronavirus crisis in late February, and on an almost daily basis thereafter, while no meeting between the body and Health Minister Simon Harris took place until March 30.
Nursing homes have been disproportionately hit by the crisis, with some 90% of people who have lost their lives from Covid-19 here being aged 65 and older.
On March 15, NHI chief executive Tadhg Daly reiterated a point to the department that he would make repeatedly over the following weeks - that his organisation’s 390 members were unable to access crucial PPE as manufacturers were “supplying all such products exclusively to (the) HSE at the time”, a point which echoed the health authorities’ perceived focus on protecting the acute hospitals' system from the virus.
On March 12, six days after NHI had elected to apply visitor restrictions to its own members and the day chief medical officer Tony Holohan assented to that decision, Mr Daly was informed by the department that a principal officer would not be able to speak to him “as he and many of the other senior managers are involved in multiple high-level meetings throughout the day”.
On March 19, the organisation again called for an “urgent” meeting with Mr Harris. The following day Mr Daly wrote once more to the Department and professed himself “appalled” that a subgroup on nursing homes had been set up by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) but had failed to include a representative from nursing homes on its membership, a decision which he said, “beggared belief”.
On April 8, as the crisis escalated, NHI delivered a survey of its members to the department, with one home remarking that in lieu of receipt of PPE fit for purpose the institution had been using “painters overall, painters goggles, surgical masks” at a cost outlay of over €12,000.
Meanwhile, Mr Daly on March 25 highlighted the fact his members were “witnessing significant challenges” in retaining staff due to an inability to compete with the State’s virus unemployment benefit. “Unfortunately due to the developments with Government yesterday… I am unable to pursue employment with you,” read one refusal of work with a home referenced by NHI.
“It does not make sense for us financially,” it said.