The Public Health Nursing Service is available free of charge to all persons with full eligibility and to such other categories of persons and for such purposes as may be specified. A wide range of services has in the past been specified and this specifically includes home nursing services for the elderly for both eligibility categories.
Provision of services to the elderly in their homes is a key element in both the working party report The Year Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly and in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress.
Of the £8 million additional funding made available for services for the elderly in 1990 and 1991, the area to benefit most was the home care services. At least 400 extra staff have been recruited by the health boards comprising nurses, home helps, attendants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and chiropodists to improve these services and all of the health boards have appointed co-ordinators or district liaison nurses to ensure that the elderly in need are identified.
If the Deputy has a specific case in mind, he might let me have details of it.