Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 September 2008
146 Deputy Michael D’Arcy asked the Minister for Health and Children if she will licence nursing agencies or home help providers in order to promote and encourage patient safety; her plans to licence private health care facilities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32279/08]
View answerThere are no plans at present to licence nursing agencies providing home-based care or home help providers. With regard to private health care facilities, the present standards for nursing homes are set out in the Care and Welfare Regulations and the Health Service Executive (HSE) inspects private nursing homes on the basis of these standards. Earlier this year, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) submitted "Draft Standards for Residential Care Settings for Older People" for approval, and these are currently under consideration in the Department. Once introduced, these standards will apply to all nursing homes — public, private and voluntary.
The HSE provides a wide range of community-based home care services such as home care packages, home helps, meals-on-wheels, and day/respite care. In this context, the Department is at present progressing an evaluation of the home care packages initiative introduced in recent years. It is intended to complete the Evaluation early next year, and that it will make an important contribution towards informing future policy and service developments for home care services generally. Recent improvements in the home help service have included the implementation of the National Home Help Agreement, which has led to the professionalisation of the service at HSE level. This has resulted in greater flexibility in service delivery and has improved consistency and service quality, to the benefit of users.
The HSE works closely with voluntary and private providers in relation to promoting patient safety, good practice, and standards generally for clients. The implications of introducing statutory standards for home care provision would obviously be wide ranging and significant, and have to be the subject of detailed consideration by all stakeholders. In the circumstances, the question of introducing any new standards for the areas referred to by the Deputy, whether on a statutory or voluntary basis would, in the first instance, have to await the outcome of the various initiatives I have outlined.
