Máirín Quill
Question:16 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Health the number of respite beds for geriatric patients in Cork city; and if he will make a statement on the overall provision for geriatric persons in Cork.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Respite Place for Elderly.
The report, The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly is the first official report to recommend comprehensive measures relating to the provision of respite places for the elderly. The report emphasised the importance of additional day care places and respite facilities to offer carers a break from caring during the day or for short and regular periods of time.
"The Years Ahead" has been accepted by the Government as a policy towards the elderly. In the years 1990 to 1992 the Government allocated an additional £9 million to the health boards to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations of the report dealing with the expansion of home nursing and home help services and of facilities for the elderly in the community. These extra funds have enabled the health boards to recruit additional public health nurses, general nurses working in the community, home helps and home care attendants. In addition, they have been able to provide more day care centres, respite places and extended care beds. Each health board provides respite services. It is the policy of my Department to encourage boards to extend these facilities.
The Southern Health Board provides a full range of services for the elderly, from assessment and rehabilitation in the specialist unit in Cork Regional Hospital, to extended nursing care in long stay institutions and nursing homes, to community care services including services in the home and at day care centres.
At present the Southern Health Board provides 21 respite beds for the elderly in Cork city in the following locations— St. Patrick's Hospital, Wellington Road, St. Joseph's Mount Desert and St. Luke's Home, Military Hill. The provision of such hospital-based respite care has proven to be beneficial to the elderly person being cared for, in that assessment or treatment can be offered, as well as providing an important break for the carer.
Will the Minister accept that 21 respite beds is grossly inadequate in a city of 138,000 people, a large percentage of whom are now over 65 years of age? That number is growing because people are now living longer. The result of this insufficiency of respite beds is that families cannot find a respite bed for their relatives even for one week of the year. Very often the people who suffer most are middle aged mothers trying to raise their children and coping with all the demands that entails while, at the same time, trying to care for elderly relatives at a time when their own energy and health is diminishing.
Brevity please, Deputy.
Hundreds of families have requested me to assist in obtaining respite beds for their relatives for even one week of the year but there are none available. There is a great need for these services in the Cork area. What action does the Minister intend to take to increase the number of respite beds which would give some hope and assistance to these families?
The issue of respite beds is relatively new. Traditionally people cared for their elderly relatives at home and never thought of taking a couple of weeks holiday in the year. That has been recognised in "The Years Ahead" approach. That report has been adopted by the Government and significant resources have been put in place to provide not only respite care but a range of other services. These include home care facilities, which are important to support people at home, home helps, an increase in the number of district liaison nurses, the employment of additional public health nurses, general trained nurses, chiropodists and physiotherapists, all of whom have been recruited in the past couple of years to provide a proper infrastructure. Community health facilities, including day care centres, short term, respite care and long stay care facilities are being improved also. It should be noted also that in 1990 a consultant physiogeriatrician was appointed in Cork. Those measures were introduced in the past few years to improve general conditions for the elderly. The most significant advance was the enactment of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act which will provide another alternative to the respite bed. This is all part of a strategy rather than a single process.
Will the Minister admit that it is not too much for a carer to expect one week in the year when they would not be required to stay at home looking after an elderly relative? This is a crucial element in the programme that the Minister has outlined and there is a great need for an extension of that service to enable families to keep their elderly relatives at home.
A question please, Deputy.
If better provisions are not made families will be unable to keep their elderly relatives at home which will result in additional long stay beds having to be provided.
There is great merit in what the Deputy said. I am anxious to resource home support services to allow people to stay at home for as long as they are physically capable of doing so. Respite care will be an integral part of that strategy and I will do everything possible to provide resources to increase the number of respite beds available in Cork and throughout the country.
I concede there has been some improvement in this area. However, will the Minister agree that the consequent knock-on effect of the inadequacies in the system as outlined by Deputy Quill is that high cost acute beds are occupied by elderly patients? Has the Minister considered treating other health boards in the same manner as the Eastern Health Board, by giving them a special allocation so that extra beds can be provided for elderly people?
I agree with the Deputy that, due to recent lack of nursing home beds, people were wrongly placed in acute beds and as a result those who should have been in these beds were denied access to them. Within days of coming to office I took action to address the problem in the Eastern Health Board area, which was welcomed, even by people outside the Eastern Health Board. The £4 million available to me from Government will enable the Health (Nursing Homes) Act to be implemented throughout the country. I would use this opportunity to inform the House that negotiations have concluded with nursing homes organisations. I will be in a position shortly to finalise the regulations and hope to have the Health (Nursing Homes) Act in place very soon.