Skip to main content
Normal View

Home Care Packages

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 September 2020

Thursday, 17 September 2020

Questions (211)

Verona Murphy

Question:

211. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Health the provisions being put in place to fund additional homecare hours to persons already approved for and awarded hours but unable to receive the hours due to no available funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24614/20]

View answer

Written answers

The Home Support Service is a core service for older people and is highly valued by service users, their families and by the Health Service Executive. It provides supports which assist older people to live independently in their own homes for longer and enables large numbers of people to return home following acute hospital admission who otherwise would remain in hospital or would be admitted to long stay residential care.

The HSE has advised that the spread of COVID-19 throughout our communities has posed significant challenges for many areas of our Older Person’s Services, including Home Support Services. As a result of the impact of COVID-19 and the national effort across all Community Healthcare Organisations throughout the country, some aspects of normal monthly reporting have been delayed with data coverage issues in some areas therefore available data is preliminary and may be subject to change.  Preliminary data currently available reflects the period to the end of July 2020. As of this date:

- over 9.8 million home support hours were delivered nationally to 51,571 people

- Almost 165,000 home support hours have been delivered to 148 people through intensive home care packages.

- there were 4,550 people waiting for funding for new or additional home support 

Winter 20/21 is expected to be particularly challenging due to the presence of COVID-19 and the uncertainty around the level of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 health care demands.

The HSE is finalising a Plan, in line with Sláintecare principles, for winter planning within the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiatives in the Plan are aimed at increasing hospital and community capacity, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions by enhancing alternative community care pathways, and enabling timely discharges from acute hospitals, and consequently reduce waiting times in hospital emergency departments. There will be a focus on targeted actions to shift care to home and ambulatory care environments, especially for high-risk cohorts such as elderly patients and those with chronic illnesses.

The resources for the Plan will be sought as part of the 2021 estimates process. In advance of this, Government has allocated €600m to support the early roll-out of the Winter specific measures in this Plan. This will facilitate the commencement of priority measures from an operational perspective.

Top
Share