Dr. Kathleen MacLellan:

The HSE can speak for itself. We have a significant recruitment campaign that is ongoing. Part of that campaign will help support some of the staffing levels that may be required during very high Covid surge times within nursing homes. I am sure Nursing Homes Ireland may want to speak on this issue. It has also been actively seeking to recruit staff for its nursing homes.

On the end of life issue, there has been significant support from the community palliative care teams and the Covid response teams to support end of life care as well as is possible, within these very challenging circumstances. When Covid rates are very high within nursing homes, it is difficult for them to facilitate as much visiting as they would like to. We have always supported nursing home providers and those nurses in charge to facilitate as much visiting as possible at the end of life stage. Indeed, the guidance includes a very specific risk assessment to support them in this. One of the recommendations from the expert panel is that we work with the Irish Hospice Foundation, which we are doing in respect of any improvements that can be made around end of life care. In addition, we have funded HIQA to look to develop an end of life survey, as part of the patient experience survey, so that we can gain learning from that to bring back into our practice.