Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Question:1230. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Health the long-term Covid-19 plan for persons with disabilities in residential care facilities. [32724/20]
View answerTuesday, 3 November 2020
Questions (1230)
Written answers
In the context of the Governments Resilience & Recovery Framework (2020 – 2021), the HSE regards the provision of disability services, including residential care and support, as essential to maintaining a response to the needs of people with a disability.
Throughout the pandemic, the HSE has worked closely with service providers to ensure that residential care is provided in accordance with public health guidance. The HSE has also worked with service providers to facilitate emergency residential placements during the public health emergency in response to the needs of service users and their families.
Approximately 8,400 people with disabilities live in Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) registered disability centres ranging from single apartments to group homes in the community to campus-based facilities. Long term residential care settings for people with a disability are the home environment of the residents. HIQA has played an important role in providing advice and support to residential centres as they tackle COVID-19 and ensuring they are maintaining compliance with HIQA standards and engaging in appropriate contingency planning with a view to winter preparedness.
As of midnight October 31st 2020, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has confirmed:
- There has been no outbreak of COVID 19 (two or more cases) in over 80% of centres. Outbreaks have, however, been recorded to date in 143 residential disability centres.
- 73% (or 104) of these have now been declared closed after 28 days with no new cases while 39 remain open.
- 709 people are laboratory confirmed being Covid-19 positive.
- It is estimated that around 54% of those affected were staff, and 46% were residents.
- Unfortunately, 13 people have died, all of them residents
My Department secured €100m in additional funding in Budget 2021, which will significantly increase the disability services budget to around €2.2 billion next year and build the capacity of these services in the context of ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19. This additional investment includes provision for increasing capacity within our residential services and supporting people with a disability to move out of congregated settings into residential settings in the community in line with key Programme for Government commitments.