Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020
156. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Health the number of additional homecare support hours recommended by the 2018 Health Service capacity review; the proportion of this provided in Budget 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33459/20]
View answerThe Health Service Capacity Review which was published in 2018 outlines projections of demand and capacity requirements for a range of health services to 2031. As our population, particularly our older population continues to grow, key projections from the analysis indicated that for the period 2016-2021 there would be a
- 12% growth in overall population;
- 59% growth in 65+ population; and
- 95% growth in 85+ population.
The review noted that if key reforms and productivity measures are implemented, a 120% increase in home supports will be required by 2031.
In 2018 the HSE began streamlining services by bringing together the funding for home help and standard home care packages, which now operate as a single home support service. This new approach has provided significant benefits including making the services easier to understand; streamlining the application and decision-making processes; and facilitating service users to move to changed levels of service as their assessed needs change, without the need for an additional application process.
Overall, the 2018 HSE National Service Plan (NSP) provided for 17.4 million home support hours to be delivered to 50,500 people at any time. This includes home support hours provided through intensive home care packages. In 2019 the target increased to 18.26 million hours and this year’s National Service Plan provides for over 19.26 million hours of home support.
An additional €150 million is being provided for home support in 2021. A new National Home Support Office will be established along with commencing the roll out of InterRAI, a comprehensive standard care assessment tool. The very significant additional funding will provide a further 5 million hours over this year’ target aimed at keeping older people healthy and happy, in their community, for as long as possible. This represents about a 40% increase in home support hours over the 2018 NSP target.
A high-quality, consistent home-support service, focused on keeping people well in their homes and communities for as long as possible, is a key enabler to ensuring that people across a continuum of care get the right care, in the right place, at the right time. In this regard, my Department is in the process of developing a statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support. Work is on-going within the Department to determine the optimal approach to the development of the statutory scheme within the broader context of the on-going reform of Ireland’s health and social care system, as envisaged in the Sláintecare Report (2017).
While work undertaken in 2019 focussed on the design of the scheme, work in 2020 is focussing on the development of a framework for the regulation of home-support services. In addition, the options for the funding of the new scheme are being examined through work with the Economic and Social Research Institute on the projected demand for, and cost of, home-support services in various scenarios. This work will ensure that the funding model developed for the statutory scheme is fit for purpose.
