Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 October 2020
282. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of conducting 200,000 Covid-19 tests per week through the existing network of State-owned and operated medical laboratories. [27805/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021 Plan for Living with COVID-19 recently launched by Government, commits the HSE to introducing a more accessible and sustainable testing service that will meet the demands coming into the Autumn/Winter months.
The HSE has recently been developing the future service model for testing and contact tracing. This model will aim to deliver a patient-centred, accessible, consistent, responsive and flexible service, with sufficient capacity to take us through the winter months and beyond. This plan includes recruitment of a permanent dedicated workforce for for Covid-19 Testing and contact tracing which has already commenced, and a range of other service improvements to be rolled out quickly. For example, the HSE is currently recruiting over 700 people to take swabs and over 500 contact tracing staff all around the country.
This future model is currently being finalised by the HSE and will be submitted to the Department, together with costings, in the near future.
