I wish to share my time with Senator Farrell.
Adjournment Matters. - North West Hospice Funding.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I raise this issue on the Adjournment because of a sense of frustration expressed by members and supporters of the North West Hospice who have been requesting funding for the pallative care service in Sligo for the past year and a half. I also raise it because a relative passed away a couple of weeks ago in Sligo, at a very young age. The care he received from the hospice was outstanding and will never be forgotten by his wife and family.
I know the Minister of Health, Deputy Noonan, has, on numerous occasions, committed himself to providing funding for the care of cancer patients. He also listed this as one of his priorities when he became Minister for Health. The North West Hospice covers an area including counties Sligo, Leitrim, south Donegal and north Roscommon. This must be one of the most rural areas covered by a hospice care service in any part of the country. It has an aging population which makes care more difficult to provide because there are many more patients in need of it.
Since 1989, when the North West Hospice was established in the Sligo, Leitrim, south Donegal and south Roscommon area, 800 families have been offered home care. That service now employs a full-time doctor and four nurses in addition to running a full-time public information office. Sixty-five per cent of the £200,000 annual cost of that service is provided by the general public living in the area. In the past year the public has also provided £380,000 to construct and renovate an eight bed residential hospice for people with advanced cancer. None of that money was provided by the State. North West Hospice is only asking for funding in the 1997 Estimates for two or three beds in the building it has provided. It is worth nothing that £61,000 of the funds expended by North West Hospice in the past 12 months to provide that unit went on VAT paid to the State. It is also worth nothing that, in its ten year history, North West Hospice and its clinical staff have been net contributors to the State through taxes, PRSI and VAT.
The North West Hospice seeks equity and fairness from the State and to be treated the same as other residential hospices for funding purposes. It is not good enough that, for five months this summer, nobody in authority could clarify the future direction of hospice services in the north-west. It is not good enough that the proposed phased opening of a residential hospice service by the North West Hospice had to be postponed last month.
The situation has changed in the last couple of days following the announcement by the Minister for Health of a commission on cancer strategy. I have been in regular contact with the programme manager, Mr. Richard Greene, who gave me a commitment that he would give priority to the North West Hospice with regard to funding. Mr. Greene sent a letter to the North West Hospice within the last couple of days suggesting that it contact the North-Western Health Board.
One year ago, on Wednesday, 22 November 1995, North West Hospice presented a two volume submission, fully costed and running to over 100 pages, to the chief executive officer and deputy chief executive officer of the North-Western Health Board, Mr. Manus Ward. North West Hospice was specifically requested by the deputy chief executive officer at a meeting in June 1995 to provide a costed proposal to provide eight beds. When it was presented to the health board, North West Hospice was told that it would be in time for the 1996 Estimates. A year has passed since that proposal was submitted.
I am asking the Department of Health, in conjunction with the North Western Health Board, to ensure that palliative care in the north-west region is given adequate funding for the provision of beds in the building that has been provided by North West Hospice, adjacent to Sligo General Hospital. Frustrations are strong in the voluntary organisation and I appeal to the Minister to provide money in 1997.
I support this motion. The North-Western Health Board leased some of its property to the hospice and the hospice has done wonderful work with it. I toured the premises recently. It has a fine four bed unit ready to be used. There is a private room for use by patients in the last week or so of their illnesses. There is also a room in which the next of kin can stay and a small reception room for their use.
The work of the hospice on the centre is second to none but it is hamstrung for money. It has done marvellous fund raising work and the people of the north-west have been very good in donating funds. However, the hospice cannot run the service on fundraising alone and if we are serious about helping people who are ill with cancer and need treatment we should provide the necessary funding. North West Hospice has given a wonderful field service, as I call it. Its members travel to see patients and try to keep them as long as possible in their homes. That is a wonderful service because most people wish to stay at home for as long as they can.
The unit in Sligo is second to none and I appeal to the Minister to accede to the hospice's request for funding. If the Minister visits Sligo, the staff of the hospice will be delighted to show him what they have done. They have done a super job on a shoestring budget. I appeal to the Minister to support this motion to provide funding for the North West Hospice. Other hospices throughout the country are getting far more funds. Sligo is at the bottom of the list even though North West Hospice deals with a large rural area with rough terrain which involves large mileage.
The Members of this House will be aware that, since taking office, the Minister for Health has identified cancer as one of his major priorities. Funding has, therefore, been provided for the development of cancer services as part of the ongoing enhancement of health services in recent years. In relation to the North-Western Health Board, services for cancer patients are already being enhanced and, on the basis of service priorities agreed with the North-Western Health Board, £275,000 has been provided for the development of oncology services in the North-Western Health Boards area.
In relation to the development of hospice services in the north-west, I understand that the planning process is already well under way and that a report on hospice services in the North-Western Health Board area, in the context of the recommendations in the national cancer strategy, is being prepared for consideration by the health board's standing committees at their meetings in December 1996. The report will include a set of priorities for the development of palliative care services as defined in the recently announced national cancer strategy.
Voluntary groups play a valuable role in the provision of services to cancer patients and the North-Western Health Board recognises this in the support which it provides to the hospice groups in its area. The board has committed funding on an annual basis to the North West Hospice in addition to the provision of hospice beds in the board's community hospitals, as well as staff training. The health board also donated the accommodation for the residential hospice unit. Taking into account the important role of groups such as the North West Hospice, I understand that the health board's cancer plan will set out proposals regarding the role, function and funding for the voluntary organisations, the North West Hospice and the Donegal/Foyle Hospice, in the proposed future organisation of the services in the board's area. In this regard, I understand the health board has already met representatives of the North West Hospice.
The question of further development of hospice services in the north-west will fall to be considered in the light of the priorities identified by the North-Western Health Board. The board's priorities will form the basis for future improvements in services for cancer patients in the north-west. I am sure that the North West Hospice will continue to maintain contact with the North-Western Health Board in the development of plans for the enhancement of cancer services in the north-west. Members will appreciate that, having regard to the present state of discussions as I have outlined, it is not possible to respond directly to the question raised by Senator Reynolds at this stage.