Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 26 May 1994

Vol. 443 No. 3

Written Answers. - Care of Elderly.

Pádraic McCormack

Question:

45 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Health whether he has satisfied himself as to the extent of services and facilities available to the elderly through community care; if an extension or augmentation of such services will be provided in the near future; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Health (Mr. Howlin)

This Government is committed to ensuring that elderly people receive the highest quality of health care available. The objectives of health policy, towards the elderly are set out in the report, The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly.

They are to support the care of dependent elderly people at home for as long as possible and to ensure that when elderly people can no longer be cared for at home, that there are appropriate specialist and extended care facilities to meet their needs. The priorities for service development at present are to strengthen community care services for elderly persons and their carers at home, to provide more specialist facilities in acute hospitals and to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of elderly mentally infirm.

Considerable progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations contained in The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly. In recent years an additional £9 million was made available to the health boards to develop services for the elderly and their carers. This extra funding has enabled the health boards to expand home nursing services, to provide day care centres and day hospitals, to provide more departments of medicine of the elderly in general hospitals, to increase the number of physiotherapists and speech therapists in the community and to develop services for the elderly mentally infirm.

The progress achieved in developing the health services for the elderly in line with the recommendations of The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly will be maintained. Under the Programme for a Partnership Government we will be developing a health service of the highest quality so that people, particularly the elderly, can be confident that they will be well looked after should they need medical care.

In the recently published Health Strategy, one of the priorities in relation to the elderly will be to strengthen the role of the general practitioner, the public health nurse, the home help and other primary care professionals in supporting older people and their carers who live at home. The target will be to ensure that not less than 90 per cent of those over 75 years of age continue to live at home.

The implementation of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act, 1990, on 1 September, 1993 is proving beneficial to elderly people in need of nursing home care. The Act has two principal objectives. First, it aims to ensure that all nursing homes which care for dependent elderly people will have a high standard of accommodation and care. Second, it will assist financially dependent persons who need nursing home care and who cannot afford to pay nursing home fees. The implementation of the Act is also another important step in honouring the commitments in the Programme for a Partnership Government. The new Act is a major step forward in ensuring that dependent elderly persons in this country will be well cared for.