Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Special Committee on Covid-19 Response
Business of Special Committee
Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I will get him a detailed briefing on that. I will add that while the elective hospital is needed and the winter plan includes, for example, funding for approximately 900 additional acute beds, a critical additional part is the investment in community care. We need investment in hospitals but, as per the Sáintecare strategy, we are also investing heavily in community-based care, home care, general practitioners, chronic disease management in the community and access to diagnostics in the community. At the same time as building acute capacity, we want to reduce the need for people to use that capacity by getting treatment at home and in the community.