Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
119. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Health if he will order an inquiry into the circumstances of all Covid-19 deaths at a healthcare setting (details supplied); and the number of persons who died at the setting in 2020. [37651/22]
View answerI appreciate that the Deputy has raised this matter on a number of occasions, through various formats, on behalf of those families who lost loved ones in the early months of the pandemic.
I must reiterate that the position remains that the Department of the Taoiseach are considering options for a comprehensive evaluation of how the country managed COVID-19. This evaluation will provide an opportunity to learn lessons from our experiences in dealing with a pandemic over the past two years. This will help ensure that we are in a better, stronger position if another pandemic or another similar type of emergency arrives.
I recognise how difficult it has been for the families of nursing home residents who died during this pandemic, which has presented one of the greatest and most wide-ranging public health challenges internationally in recent history. Throughout the pandemic, the overall national response to COVID-19 has had a specific and sustained focus on older persons, particularly those resident in nursing homes.
This included the establishment of a structured nursing home support system, in line with National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) recommendations, to provide enhanced supports to public and private nursing homes. A comprehensive package of direct and indirect supports was established in early 2020 and many of these remain active across the country to support nursing homes on a proactive basis.
In addition, the independent COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel was established early in the pandemic in May 2020 to examine the complex issues surrounding the management of COVID-19 in nursing homes and to provide real-time learnings and recommendations to inform the ongoing response.
One of the most important things we can take from the sadness, illness, and death experienced over the last two years is our learning and understanding of the challenges facing the nursing home sector. Through engagement with key stakeholders in the nursing home sector, including residents, their families and advocacy groups, we are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Nursing Homes Expert Panel and a programme of reform is ongoing across health agencies and stakeholders to ensure an improved quality of service and experience for residents into the future.
