Vol. 533 No. 2
95 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the support his Department is giving to health boards that wish to set up home support services to enable elderly patients who have been clinically discharged from hospitals, to be cared for in their own homes. [8466/01]
Considerable additional funding was made available to the health boards by this Government, in recent years, towards community support services for older people, by way of nurses, care attendants and para-medical grades such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and chiropodists. The total additional funding for this purpose in the three years 1999-2001, inclusive, amounted to £7 million. In the same period, a sum of £7.28 million was made available to the health boards to enhance the home help service, either by extending the number of hours to existing clients or giving a first-time service to new clients.
The Southern Health Board has informed me that it provides a range of home support services, including public health nursing, registered general nursing, home help and therapy services, including physiotherapy and occupational therapy, to patients discharged home from acute care. As part of its "Ageing with Confidence" strategy, additional resources have been provided by the board, over the past two years, to improve nursing care teams and therapy services in the community. In addition, the development of day care services throughout the board's region provides additional support to patients discharged into the community.
