A new ESRI report has found that one-in-five small private nursing homes in rural areas shut their doors in a two-year period.
It notes that almost 700 public nursing home beds were closed between February 2020 and December 2022.
The report warns that there is now a growing reliance on large private 'for-profit' operators "driven by recent entrants into the Irish market who are mainly financed by international private equity".
These operators opened several large private nursing homes recently, the ESRI said.
Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Daly has said he welcomes the issue being addressed.
"ESRI rightly calls out... that the Government needs to put in place policies that harmonise financial incentives for nursing home providers with the primary objective of fulfilling residents’ health and social care demands within a more integrated care environment," he said.
"This is consistent with NHI calls over a number of years and the lack of action continues to place a black cloud over the sector, threatening it in an extreme way."
Mr Daly said the nursing home closures are also having an impact on older people and their families, with people having to travel further to access care and for families to visit.
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