Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2019
280. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the amount spent on the winter plan; the amount spent on advertisement and public relations, in tabular form; the achievements of the plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10341/19]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the Winter Plan came into effect on 1 December 2018 and will continue until 31 March 2019. The Plan seeks to ensure that the health system is as prepared as possible for the increase in demand on services over the coming months, within existing capacity and financial parameters.
Key actions are now underway, as part of the Winter Plan, and a €30 million investment has been made to improve services for patients during this period of peak demand including: the opening of additional beds, the use of private hospital capacity, frailty intervention teams in Emergency Departments, additional homecare packages and transitional care beds along with additional diagnostics in hospitals and for GPs.
Four public information, patient focused campaigns were undertaken by the HSE as part of the Winter Plan 2018/19 and funding of €700,000 was allocated.
The four campaigns were:
- Winter Wellness - to unify all public health messages across all platforms;
- Flu Vaccine - to promote the uptake of flu vaccine among at-risk groups;
- Under the Weather - to provide advice for people for common illnesses; and
- Promotion of the 11 Injury Units including clinical spokesperson highlighting the services available and providing information on Emergency Departments.
According to provisional figures, we have observed increased attendances at Emergency Department, increased admission and a 14% reduction in trolley figures this winter, between December 2018 and February 2019, compared to same months last year.
A review and lessons learned process to inform on the details of the actions, outputs and outcomes of the Winter Plan, including a breakdown of the amounts spent for the various aspects of the plan, will take place at the end of the winter period. The review will aim to highlight areas of success and areas for improvement, in order to inform the planning process for winter 2019/20.
