Written Answers Nos. 229-240
229. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the full-year cost to the State of employing ten hospital nurses and ten community health nurses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29536/15]
View answerI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on the matter. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
230. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the full-year cost to the State of employing ten primary care social workers, ten primary care counsellors, ten dieticians and ten podiatrists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29537/15]
View answerI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on the matter. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
231. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the average cost to the State of providing an acute hospital bed per night in each of the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29538/15]
View answerThe Health Service Executive has been asked to examine this matter and to reply to the Deputy as soon as possible. If the Deputy has not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days, please contact my Private Office who will follow up the matter with them.
232. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the average cost to the State of providing a community response bed per night in each of the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29539/15]
View answer233. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the details of community response beds; their locations, numbers, and overall costs, per year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29540/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 232 and 233 together.
As these are service matters, they have been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply to the Deputy. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
234. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the details of beds in stepdown care; their locations, numbers and overall cost per year; how they and their numbers compare internationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29541/15]
View answerAs this is a service matter it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
235. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health if he will advise on the average cost per bed in nursing homes; the overall number of beds, both private and public; how this compares internationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29542/15]
View answerThe average weighted cost of care in a private nursing home under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme at the end of 2014 was €893. The average weighted cost of care in a public facility is €1,390. It is true that costs for public nursing homes are higher than in the private sector and vary considerably even within the public system. There are valid factors for a difference, in that more complex and highly dependent residents are often catered for by the public system, and conditions of employment and tenure etc. are different too.
It is, however, important that public facilities operate as efficiently and economically as possible and towards that end, the HSE is already engaged in a comprehensive exercise to review and streamline the operation and cost structures of public facilities. The Department of Health will also be conducting a Value for Money Review of public nursing home costs to identify more fully the factors that may be increasing costs and any areas that require correction.
Long-term nursing home care is provided through a mix of public and private nursing homes, with the public sector accounting for approximately 20% of all beds. At the end of 21014, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) estimated that there were approximately 29,000 long stay beds in a total of 565 designated centres. It is anticipated that almost 24,000 people will be in receipt of support under the Nursing Home Support Scheme by the end of 2015.
The proportion of older people in residential care is a constantly changing one, and international comparison can be quite problematic because of differences in models of care and in definition of what constitutes long term residential care etc. However, in Ireland we generally have somewhere between 4% and 4.5% of those aged over 65 in residential care, and this is about average for other countries in the OECD.
Notwithstanding this, I would hope to reduce this number further, as older people generally prefer to stay in their own homes and communities for as long as they can. The Review of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme, as well as considering the historical and future operation of the Scheme itself, will consider how community and other services should be developed in order to facilitate more older people to stay at home for longer, and towards this end it identifies the services that should be prioritised into the future as resources allow.
236. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health his plans to replace A Vision for Change policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29543/15]
View answerA Vision for Change, which was published in 2006, provides a seven-to-ten year framework for the development of our mental health services. Since coming into office, this Government has prioritised the reform and resourcing of our mental health services in line with the recommendations in A Vision for Change. Additional funding totalling €125 million has been provided primarily to strengthen Community Mental Health teams for both adults and children and to enhance specialist community mental health services for older people with a mental illness, those with an intellectual disability and mental illness, and forensic mental health services.
Implementation of Vision is ongoing and work will be undertaken during 2015 to prioritise outstanding actions informing the identification of any gaps in service. The additional €35 million provided for mental health in Budget 2015 will be directed towards the continued prioritised development and reconfiguration of Community Mental Health teams. In addition, the funding will also permit urgent specialist needs to be addressed, including psychiatric intensive care, forensic mental health, mental health intellectual disability care, and psychiatric liaison services.
A Vision for Change contained a commitment that it would be reviewed after 7 years. It was decided to give priority to the review of the Mental Health Act 2001, after which consideration would again be given to reviewing Vision. The Expert Group which I set up to review the Mental Health Act 2001 has now completed its work and preliminary work on the development of a successor policy to A Vision for Change is under way and the parameters of a review will be agreed as soon as possible.
237. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the number of practising clinical psychologists and the waiting lists for their services; his plans to increase the number; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29544/15]
View answerAs this is a service issue this question has been referred to the HSE for direct reply. If you have not received a reply within 15 working days, please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
238. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the cost of filling the remaining outstanding posts as recognised in A Vision for Change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29545/15]
View answerThe Government is committed to the continued reform of mental health services, notwithstanding the substantial overall reduction in resources available to the health service in recent years. Towards this end, ring-fenced funding of €125 million and some 1,150 posts have been provided since 2012 to develop community mental health services and suicide prevention resources. The budget for mental health services in 2014 is significant at approximately €791.8 million.
A Vision for Change indicates a requirement for 10,647 WTE staff which, when adjusted for the 2011 population census, equates to around 12,240 WTE staff by 2016. However, given the changed economic circumstances since the publication of Vision in 2006, the Government had to reduce the numbers employed across the public service in order to meet fiscal and budgetary targets. While the health sector must make its contribution to that reduction, the HSE can make staff appointments once it remains within its overall employment ceiling, and has the financial resources to do so. In its 2014 Service Plan, the HSE committed to develop workforce planning to bring greater certainty around essential replacements, and the streamlining of recruitment to allow for more local control and specialisation, where appropriate. A National Recruitment Optimisation Group was established in 2014 to improve the process and communications on advancing approval, advertisement and recruitment of all replacement and development posts.
While staffing levels in the mental health service have fallen, there are positives that must be acknowledged. Many of the staff numbers lost were supporting the excessive numbers of beds which are no longer part of the service user, recovery-focused, modern, community-based model for mental health. The overall reduction in numbers has been mitigated due to the priority ring-fenced Programme for Government investments in 2012, 2013 and again in 2014. This has allowed the HSE to begin to re-balance the staff skill mix in mental health and to introduce new staff in the historically under represented disciplines recommended in A Vision for Change, i.e. psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists.
Recruitment of new posts is ongoing. As at end of May 2015, 399.5 or 96% of the 416 posts approved in 2012 and 420.5 or 88% of the 477 posts approved in 2013 have now been filled. Of the 251 posts allocated in 2014, 75 have been recruited of which 63 had started by 31st May, 2015 and a further 78.5 are at various stages of the recruitment process. Allocations for new service developments in 2015 are also due to be finalised in the very near future.
239. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health if he has instigated any analysis of the costs of ending all admissions of children to adult wards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29546/15]
View answerAs this is a service issue this question has been referred to the HSE for direct reply. If you have not received a reply within 15 working days, please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
240. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the details of the roll-out of primary care centres and primary care teams in each of the past five years; the number of teams and centres there were at the end of each year and currently; the full-year expenditure on both in the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29547/15]
View answerAs these are service matters, they have been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply to the Deputy. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
