Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

HSE Winter Plan: HSE

Dr. Colm Henry:

The structure of this is quite important. These networked teams are multidisciplinary teams which are linked to local hospitals but their focus is on providing a care earlier in the spectrum to people with chronic disease, diabetes being a good example, where we provide care in a community setting through multidisciplinary teams that might otherwise have to be given as outpatients which, by definition, is less community based and less accessible to patients in some ways. The spectrum of interventions range from screening to opportunistic intervention, to medication review to blood pressure measurement, to other actions taken at that left side of the spectrum which allow people with chronic disease to stay healthier, live healthier and have more accurately prescribed and suitable medications, and hopefully never to rely on hospitalisation if they become more ill. It is about resilience, building teams within the community that are linked to hospitals that are providing a range of care for that left side of the spectrum, for chronic disease, particularly diabetes, heart disease and lung disease.

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