The Government is facing a new controversy over nursing home charges after it emerged that health authorities in recent months have illegally taken into account the income of spouses in determining the weekly amounts to be paid by patients in long-stay public facilities.
Potentially several hundred patients may now be in line for repayments after the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) accepted that official guidelines for the imposition of these charges, which were introduced last year, were inconsistent with governing legislation.
The guidelines were put in place to allow health authorities to reimpose charges which had been suspended at the end of 2004 after it was discovered that they had no legal basis.
The HSE said last night that its officials at local level have been instructed to carry out a review of the number of patients who may have been affected by consideration of family income in determining charges.
The executive said the guidelines were introduced last year on an interim basis. It said they had been based on existing arrangements for medical card entitlements.
It was accepted that these guidelines could contain anomalies, a spokeswoman said.
A new set of national guidelines for long-stay charges, based on an expert group report, will come into effect from August.
The HSE said last night it anticipated that only a relatively small number of individuals, possibly running into hundreds, would be affected by the new controversy over long-stay charges.
The HSE said that where repayments were required, they would be made on an immediate basis.
The new controversy came to light on foot of an investigation carried out by the Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly. The Ombudsman's office had been contacted by a member of the public about the charges.
Speaking at the launch of her annual report yesterday, Ms O'Reilly said the investigation had found that an aspect of the guidelines was inconsistent with the parent legislation.
"The national guidelines provide that in respect of married couples, the income of a spouse is taken into account in determining the weekly charge for in-patient services, whereas the relevant legislation and regulations provide for the imposition of charges only on persons to whom the inpatient services are provided.
"My complainant's income and that of her husband was assessed and he was being charged €120 per week for inpatient services as a public patient, which is €23.90 per week in excess of his weekly social welfare pension," Ms O'Reilly said.
The family at the centre of the Ombudsman's investigation could be line for a repayment of up to €3,000.
The Opposition yesterday strongly criticised Minister for Health Mary Harney over the latest long-stay charges controversy.
Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus said it was "another fine mess" which Ms Harney had got the country into and that it raised fundamental questions about the Minister's competence.
Fine Gael spokesman Liam Twomey said it was disgraceful that income of spouses had been taken into account when determining charges.
Ms O'Reilly also said that she anticipated receiving complaints about the operation of the €1 billion repayment scheme put in place in recent weeks by the Government to refund patients and families affected by the previous illegal charges controversy.
