Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 May 2004
180 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children when he expects all services at Naas General Hospital to become fully operational; the reason this has not happened to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15952/04]
View answer181 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children when he intends to provide the necessary resources to facilitate the opening of all facilities at the Naas General Hospital, Naas, County Kildare; the reason for the delay in so doing; if he accepts the need for urgent action on the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15953/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 180 and 181 together.
Responsibility for the provision of services at Naas General Hospital rests with the Eastern Regional Health Authority. The additional revenue funding required to complete the commissioning of additional services at the hospital is the subject of consideration by my Department in conjunction with the authority.
182 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children his plans for the retention of the respiratory and tuberculosis facilities at Peamont Hospital, Newcastle, County Dublin; if he accepts the need for the retention of such services there in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15954/04]
View answerResponsibility for the provision of services at Peamount Hospital rests with the Eastern Regional Health Authority. My Department has, therefore, asked the regional chief executive of the authority to examine the matters raised by the Deputy and to respond to him directly.
184 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans he has in mind to address the ever pressing issue of residential care for non-acute patients; if he proposes to resolve this issue by way of extra subvention for private nursing homes or through the provision of long stay beds in hospitals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15956/04]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware there is a commitment in the national health strategy to provide 1,370 additional assessment and rehabilitation beds, plus 600 additional day hospital beds with facilities encompassing specialist areas such as falls, osteoporosis treatment, fracture prevention, Parkinson's disease, stroke prevention, heart failure and continence promotion clinics. In addition, the strategy proposed the provision of an extra 5,600 extended care/community nursing unit places over a seven year period which will include provision for people with dementia. Provision of the above facilities was contingent on the provision of the necessary resources.
As the Deputy may also be aware, public private partnerships, PPP, are currently being piloted in the health sector. PPP is based on the concept that better value for money for the Exchequer may be achieved through the exploitation of private sector competencies to capture innovation and the allocation of risk to the party best able to manage it. Initially, the focus will be mainly in the area of community nursing units, CNUs, for older people. It is anticipated that 17 new CNUs will be created when the initial pilot programmes are complete, providing up to a maximum of 850 new beds in Dublin and Cork. The services offered in these units will include: assessment and rehabilitation; respite; extended care; convalescence; and, if the PPP pilot demonstrates success, it is the intention to use it as a means of providing additional community nursing units in other locations throughout the country.
Also, under the acute bed capacity initiative, I have provided additional funding of €12.6 million this year — €8.8 million to the ERHA and €3.8 million to the Southern Health Board — to facilitate the discharge of patients from the acute system to a more appropriate setting thereby freeing up acute beds. It allows for funding through the subvention system of additional beds in the private nursing home sector and ongoing support in the community. Already this funding has resulted in the discharge of over 240 patients from acute hospitals in the eastern region to various locations, the vast majority to private nursing homes. In the Cork area, the initiative has resulted in the discharge of 112 patients from acute hospitals to more appropriate settings.
The ERHA and the Southern Health Board are actively monitoring the situation and working with hospitals, the area health boards and the private nursing home sector to ensure that every effort is made to minimise the number of delayed discharges in acute hospitals.
