The Health Service Executive (HSE) is to be given power to retain one quarter of all interest generated from the private accounts held on behalf of patients in long-term residential care, under new regulations to be introduced by the Department of Health later in the year.
Separately, the Department of Health said yesterday it was working with the HSE on developing a mechanism to allow the repayment of nearly €50 million in interest retained illegally by the former health boards over nearly 30 years from such private accounts held on behalf of patients.
The new regulations, to be introduced by Minister for Health Mary Harney, will allow the HSE to retain 25 per cent of interest generated as an administrative fee for managing patients' private accounts.
The Irish Times reported last January that the Attorney General had advised the Government that the former health boards had no legal basis for retaining interest on millions of euro held for safe-keeping on behalf of patients in long-term residential care facilities.
The former health boards had operated on the basis of varying legal advice which had indicated either that they were entitled as bailors to retain any interest or as trustees to levy a charge to recoup the costs of managing such accounts.
The private accounts had been managed by health authorities generally on behalf of patients in long-term residential accommodation for the elderly or in mental health facilities or centres for those with intellectual and physical or sensory disability.
The HSE, which succeeded the former regional health boards, currently holds nearly €100 million in about 15,000 such accounts on behalf of the patients concerned.
The amount of money contained in the private accounts of patients in long-stay facilities has, in some cases, increased significantly in recent times as a result of funds received under another State repayment scheme introduced last year.
Patients who were illegally charged for their accommodation in nursing homes and other public long-stay facilities have received about €21,000 each on average in repayments to date under this reimbursement scheme.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said yesterday that it accepted that more than €48 million in interest payments retained illegally belonged to patients and their families.
