Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2023
1454. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Health when the recommendations of the Expert Panel report, now two and a half years old, will be implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13552/23]
View answerSince the start of the pandemic, the national response has continuously evolved to take account of emerging evidence and learnings both nationally and internationally. Throughout, this has included a specific focus on older people, in particular, those resident in nursing homes.
Significant supports were put in place for nursing homes, and the situation at both a local and a national level was kept under ongoing and active review. An independent Nursing Homes Expert Panel was established early in the pandemic to examine the management of COVID-19 in nursing homes and provide real-time learnings and recommendations to inform the ongoing response. The Expert Panel reported in August 2020 and made a serious of recommendations in relation to (1) the pandemic response in nursing homes and (2) a wide-ranging programme of improvement and reform for older persons’ care more broadly.
The Fourth Progress Report on the Implementation of the COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel Recommendations published in June 2022 highlighted the important progress that had already taken place across a number of areas and sets out clearly the structures and processes that have been established to ensure continued implementation. It also highlighted that the majority of short and medium term recommendations which were aimed at safeguarding people living in nursing homes against the COVID-19 virus had already been implemented and mainstreamed into normal operations.
Appendix 2 of the fourth progress report provides detailed updates, next steps and timelines for each of the recommendations as published in June 2022. The report can be viewed at the following link:
assets.gov.ie/227614/f7a9d117-b199-4a55-9bce-7750ed230e68.pdf
Since then, significant progress has also been made on progressing medium and longer term reform recommendations in the following areas:
- The Patient Advocacy Services was extended to private nursing homes from 1st November 2022.
- Revised Regulations were signed in December 2022 to enhance and streamline complaints processes. These came into effect on the 1st March 2023.
- The results of the first Nursing Homes Care Experience survey were published in November 2022.
- Work is advancing on the development of a Safe Staffing & Skillmix Framework for the sector.
- New palliative and end-of-life programme for nursing homes was launched in 2022.
- General Scheme of a Bill was published in October 2022 to give the regulator (HIQA) further powers, including in relation to enforcement and data collection.
- New dedicated IPC and Safeguarding Specialist Capacities for nursing homes have been established across the 9 CHOs and recruitment is ongoing.
- Recruitment has also commenced for Community Support Teams.
Over 100 places funded on postgraduate gerontological nursing training course for academic year 2022/2023.
While it is accepted that this broad programme of wide-ranging and complex reform will take time to implement, the Government is committed to the implementation of the Expert Panel recommendations. Funding has been put in place in 2023 for the continued implementation and mainstreaming of a range of Expert Panel recommendations, including the establishment of permanent Community Support Teams, piloting of Clinical Governance Oversight committees and the development of a Safe Staffing Framework for the sector.
In addition, the Programme for Government (2020) commits to the establishment of a ‘commission on care’ that will ‘assess how we care for older people and examine alternatives to meet the diverse needs of our older citizens’, learning the lessons from COVID-19. The Department of Health has responsibility for fulfilling this commitment. The scoping of, and planning for, the commission is being advanced as a priority in 2023.
