Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

First, regional structures exist at present. On the hospital side there are eight network managers and on the community and primary care side, four regional structures are in place. Implementation units probably are what are being envisaged under these proposals, whereby the two will be together. For example, in the case of a long-stay patient in a hospital, the responsibility for funding either a home care package or a long-stay place rests not with the hospital, but with the primary and continuing community care division. This leads to many service deficiencies and we want it to be integrated as close to the patient as possible in order that someone on the ground can make that decision and that such a decision will not be inhibited because it affects someone else's budget.

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