Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Update on the Cyberattack, Covid-19 Vaccination Roll-out and Covid-19 Restrictions in Maternity Hospitals: Health Service Executive

Mr. Paul Reid:

I will just make a general comment and my colleague, Ms O'Connor, may want to make a comment. HIQA has set out certain conditions in terms of community nursing units and general elderly care places, with which we aim to comply. It is challenging and in many cases it ends up in reduced bed capacity. We have a capital investment programme for our community nursing units which sets out to strengthen the capacity or support in terms of being compliant, but in many cases it does mean reduced capacity. I cannot comment specifically on the residential care unit Deputy Crowe has just mentioned. I am happy if my colleague, Ms O'Connor, wants to add any further comments.