Nursing homes that are struggling with vacancies and are therefore experiencing financial problems do not simply have to count on financial help from CZ Zorgkantoor. This is what CZ director Caro Verlaan says. “We are not going to pay for empty beds.”
Earlier this week, a publication from EenToday that more and more nursing homes have vacant rooms, resulting in less money coming in.
Healthcare institution Mijzo, with 26 nursing homes in Central and West Brabant, told Omroep Brabant that it has been dealing with vacancies since the end of last year. A development that healthcare administrator Mireille de Wee had not seen coming. “A year and a half ago, we were still looking at how we could shorten the time between the death of a client and the admission of a new client due to the increasing number of vulnerable elderly people at home,” she says.
At Mijzo there are approximately 20 rooms, but a number of nursing homes have had to close entire departments. Sometimes the financial shortages are so great that administrators fear that nursing homes will collapse, nursing home directors said more than a week ago.
But the Tilburg health insurer CZ will not offer financial help, says Verlaan The Telegraph. “We only pay for clients who are there. We are not going to pay for empty beds. Only to keep a provider afloat, that is not possible,” says the director.
It’s about tax money
Verlaan emphasizes that this is about taxpayers’ money. “We cannot spend taxpayers’ money on care that is not provided. That is inexplicable. So you have to look for other solutions.”
When asked how nursing homes can be prevented from collapsing, Actiz, the trade organization for elderly care, among others, points to the care offices. They are responsible for purchasing nursing home care. They benefit from the fact that there will still be places in the near future, when the number of elderly people in our country continues to increase, chairman Anneke Westerlaken explained in De Telegraaf.