Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. Like other members of the committee, I acknowledge the valuable work done by public health nurses. We have all had experience of them and all have been positive experiences.

I hope I will not be repetitive. I had written down a number of questions, many of which have been dealt with, so I will skip over some of them. The ICHN's briefing document indicates something of an issue in regard to accurate data for public health nurses work in terms of child health services.

The briefing documents from the Institute of Community Health Nursing raise the issue of accurate data for public health nurses working in child health services and states there are no key performance indicators for the delivery of the school health nursing service. We also see that parent-held record is only in use in eight former LHOs. There are gaps in the data. Are they significant and how can the data be improved?

I agree that many people need specialised care. Generally in health care it is likely that those who need the services most have greater difficulty in accessing them. Do those who are disadvantaged such as the economically marginalised, minorities and Travellers have difficulties in accessing these services?

A review of public health nursing services was commissioned by my colleague, Dr. Michael Shannon, director of the office for nursing and midwifery, in 2011, with the assistance of the public health nursing service and the Institute of Community Health Nursing. An expert group was chaired by Dr. Joe Clarke, primary care clinical lead, and the review was completed and published in March 2012. It has helped to inform future policy on the integration of services and the delivery of efficient and safe care to clients in the community. Mr. Hennessy referred to a review by his colleague Dr. Michael Shannon and Ms Martina Queally and stated: "It has helped to inform future policy on the integration of services and the delivery of efficient and safe care to clients in the community." Will they outline how the provision of public health nursing will be improved following that review? On the provision of nurse-led services for sub-populations, those with diabetes and chronic heart failure, I presume this will be a considerable task; for example, the number affected by diabetes is considerable and perhaps rising. How will this affect the service? Will more public health nursing work be conducted in the primary health care centres which are being built and is it likely that the workload will increase and in what areas is it envisaged to increase?

I think all of the other issues have been covered.