Elderly people admitted to public nursing homes from this week will be charged up to 20 times more for their care than existing residents.

The massive hikes were unveiled by the Health Service Executive (HSE) last night as it introduced the new charges in line with the Government’s ‘Fair Deal’ scheme.

It will send the weekly cost of care surging from €153.25 a week to as much as €3,182 for long-stay elderly patients in one Dublin hospice.

The Fair Deal scheme will allow nursing home residents to defer the majority of these costs until after their death by allowing the State to recoup the money from their estate posthumously.

But the scale of the new charges confirmed last night is substantially higher than had been anticipated.

It is a clear signal that the Government intends to end the current system where people who had valuable assets in public homes were only paying a fraction for their care compared to elderly patients in private nursing homes.

However, while the hikes are exorbitant, the HSE last night insisted that those availing of the Fair Deal scheme would not have to pay more than 80pc of their weekly income. And the clawback from their estate after their death would not exceed 15pc of the value of their assets.

The cost of care in public nursing homes is now far higher than many private nursing homes that have signed up for the scheme, where charges range from €640 to €1,335 a week.

The average costs of the HSE run public nursing homes are now around €1,200 a week, following a cost analysis by officials who reviewed each home separately.

A sample of the new public nursing homes rates includes €2,388 a week for the Rockfield Unit in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, €1,433 a week for Aras Mhuire Community Community Nursing Unit, Galway, and €1,449 for Raheen Community Nursing Unit in Clare.

Elderly people who are admitted to around 50 nursing home beds at Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, from this week will have to pay an average weekly cost of €3,182 – more than 20 times the €153.25 paid by existing patients.

Hospice chief executive Mo Flynn last night said that she had not been told of the scale of the hike in advance. She said she was in negotiation with the HSE to ensure another 40 beds – which are used by terminally ill patients who may be in the hospice for several months – were exempt from the costs.

The HSE last night defended the scale of the hikes.

A spokesman said public nursing homes employed a greater number of nursing staff and, therefore, had “higher nursing-to-patient ratios than in many private homes and this accounts for the higher cost of care”.

He said these higher staffing ratios were in place because public nursing homes had traditionally provided care to patients with high-dependence levels and care needs which could not be met elsewhere.

“HSE long-stay units have the highest proportion of maximum dependent older people at just over 60pc, compared to that of private nursing homes with almost 35pc,” he added.

People approved for the Fair Deal scheme who are admitted to the public units will pay a contribution of 80pc of their assessed weekly income and 5pc of the weekly value of the assets such as a house, business or farm.

Bill

The 5pc will be levied on the person’s assets over three years and will not be more than 15pc.

This is likely to leave the State still picking up much of the bill for the person’s care.

People who have signed over their assets five years before entering a private or public nursing home will not have any levy on their estate and will just have to pay 80pc of their weekly income.

There are currently up to 21,000 people in private and public nursing homes. The new charges for public homes will not affect any existing residents.