Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Home Care Services: Discussion

9:40 am

Mr. Joseph Musgrave:

I will take Deputy Donnelly's first question. HCCI welcomed the development of clinical governance in the HSE's 2018 tender, which many of my members have taken to mean having a qualified nurse or somebody similar. Codifying that is a good development. It is a baby step towards what regulation might look like and we think that is important, so that is one tick. The effort by carers remains immense. I attended the HCCI carers conference a couple of weeks ago and spoke to removed carers, some of whom were angry. They got a much-needed pat on the back by a lot of people for the work they do. My colleagues here would testify to that. There is also a lot of expertise in the system. Now that we have been operating for more than a decade, we have built up and have learned a lot of lessons. The frustration, particularly in this room, arises out of the fact that this expertise does not seem to be capitalised on. Again, while I would call that out as a positive development and a good thing, it is a shame that not much advantage seems to be taken of it. I will let others address Deputy Donnelly's second question in more detail.

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