John Browne
Ceist:65 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that patients are being placed in the corridors of St. Luke's Hospital; and the action, if any, he is taking in this matter.
Written Answers. - St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny.
St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny is at present being developed at a cost of £6 million, i.e. £4 million for building and £2 million for equipment. The development consists of three theatres, three maternity delivery suites, a 20 bed paediatric unit, a four bed intensive care unit and a central sterile supplies department.
I have provided a sum of £780,000 for the commissioning of this development in 1994. The commissioning process will include the vacation of the existing children's ward which in turn can be converted towards the provision of additional medical beds. This measure, I am sure, will alleviate the need to have patients accommodated in the corridors of St. Luke's Hospital.
Seymour Crawford
Ceist:66 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on the case of a person (details supplied) in County Monaghan where he has indicated that a relative cannot be paid home help; whether this is always the case; his views on whether it is fair that a person who has been looked after by a relative has to choose to be looked after by a stranger in order that they might qualify for home help; and the reasons a relative is not paid home help in these circumstances.
Under section 61 of the Health Act, 1970 health boards may make arrangements to assist in the maintenance at home of persons who, but for the provision of such a service, would require to be maintained otherwise than at home. This section empowers without obliging health boards to provide support services such as home help, laundry and meals.
Because of an understandable reluctance to intervene in family relationships and because of the financial implications it has never been the practice of health boards to pay, directly or indirectly, relatives of elderly persons to act as their home helps.
It is a matter for each health board to decide on the provision of home help. A person, whose elderly relative needs home help, should contact his or her local health board to discuss the services the board can provide to support the dependent person at home.