Vol. 404 No. 8
3 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the increasing demand for sub-acute and geriatric bed accommodation in many health board areas and the hardship being caused to medical card holders by the lack of these services; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
10 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health if he will outline the degree to which residential geriatric care is now available throughout the country; the number of patients in public geriatric long stay care; the number still on waiting lists; the number of patients in the subvented beds of private hospitals; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
52 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health whether he has satisfied himself with the level of institutional care available for the old.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3, 10 and 52 together.
The objectives of health policy towards the elderly are: to maintain elderly people in dignity and independence in their own home; to restore those elderly people who became ill or dependent to independence at home; to encourage and support the care of the elderly in their own community by family, neighbours and voluntary bodies in every way possible; and to provide a high quality of hospital and residential care for elderly people when they can no longer be maintained in dignity and independence at home.
These objectives were set out in the report of the working party on services for the elderly, The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly published in 1988. An additional allocation of £5 million was made available last year to develop home and community services for the elderly as recommended in the policy document. This funding has enabled boards to strengthen substantially the support they can offer elderly people and their carers at home.
The Programme for Economic and Social Progress identifies the priorities for the development of services for the elderly based on the recommendations of The Years Ahead as the expansion of home nursing, respite and other support services for the elderly and their carers living at home and the provision of specialist assessment and rehabilitation units in the main acute general hospitals and adequate numbers of extended care beds in those boards experiencing a rapid increase in the elderly population, particularly in the Eastern Health Board area. The additional funds made available in this year's budget to develop services for the elderly will enable progress to be made towards meeting these priority needs.
The provision of sufficient beds for people who no longer require acute hospital care and extended care beds for the elderly is a matter for each health board in the first instance. I am aware that some health boards are examining how patients who no longer need to be in an acute hospital, can be cared for in more appropriate accommodation.
The number of elderly patients in public extended care facilities is approximately 8,500. The number of extended care beds for the elderly in private and voluntary nursing homes and hospitals subvented by health boards is approximately 3,500. I am satisfied with the adequacy of the overall provision of long-stay accommodation for the elderly but I recognise that a particular problem exists in the Eastern Health Board area.
The Dublin Hospital Initiative Group, chaired by Professor David Kennedy, has recently highlighted the need to increase the number of extended care beds for the elderly in the greater Dublin area. The additional funds made available in this year's budget to develop services for the elderly will enable progress to be made towards meeting these needs.
Details of the number of patients on waiting lists for extended care beds are maintained locally by each health board and are not readily available in my Department.
I thank the Minister for his reply in which he details his aspiration and the reports he has commissioned. The Minister is obviously not aware of the problems of people requiring geriatric care and attention and accommodation. Is the Minister not aware of the waiting lists in all geriatric institutions or the waiting lists for sub-acute beds for older people? The Minister is obviously not aware that a person must wait for somebody else to die in one of these institutions before another bed becomes available? Is the Minister aware that public health nursing and the community supports that were provided for in the budget will not address that problem? If the Minister is not aware of this may I ask the Minister to have the health boards brief him on it as in all other health board areas apart from the Eastern Health Board on which he has commented there is a crisis in services for this segment of the community who need geriatric accommodation and not services in their own home, which is a different subject. There is a specific need for sub-acute and geritatic accommodation.
I am well aware of the fact that we have an increasing number of elderly people in our community, that we have an increasing number of dependent elderly people who are dependent on the State and that they are becoming a higher percentage of the population as a whole. Because we recognise the increasing need, £5 million was provided in the budget last year and £3 million this year was targeted specifically towards the elderly to ensure that we will build up our community services. As part of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress we will spend very substantial sums of money, up to £90 million in the final year on the current side and £100 million over the seven years on the capital side, to build up services which are specifically targeted at dependent people, the elderly, the mentally handicapped, the psychiatrically ill, the physically disabled.
The time for dealing with Priority Questions is clearly exhausted.
May I ask a very brief question, a Cheann Comhairle?
A very brief question Deputy.
I am speaking about elderly people who have been assessed as being in need of accommodation and care and not people in the community. I hope the Minister will address that problem.
We have to proceed to other questions. Question No. 6.
