Dáil debates

Thursday, 30 April 2009

5:00 pm

Photo of Michael FinneranMichael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. I thank Deputy Dan Neville for raising it as it provides me with an opportunity to update the House and to outline the background to the current situation and the action taken by the Health Service Executive.

The executive has operational responsibility for the delivery of health and social services, including the new palliative care facility at St. Ita's Hospital. The hospital was built in 1841 and has seen significant development in recent times. In 1974, a new unit of 110 beds was built, which transformed the scale of services provided. A new assessment and rehabilitation unit was opened in 1989 and a day hospital came on stream in 1990. In 2004, the Friends of St. Ita's received lottery funding of €100,000 to provide support bed and day room facilities, and a further €80,000 was provided last year to develop a therapy garden.

The new palliative care unit was delivered under the Health Service Executive's capital plan for 2006-2010. It is an eight-place facility, comprising four beds and four day places, with ancillary living, dining, activity and day care facilities. The equipping phase has commenced and the building will be in use by the end of the year as the community palliative care staff and the recently appointed clinical nurse manager will operate from it. The total capital cost of the facility is some €2.3 million, with Friends of St. Ita's contributing more than €1.2 million. The associated revenue costs are approximately €1.5 million. A new ambulant dementia unit is also scheduled to come on stream on the site. Representatives of Friends of St Ita's met with the Minister for Heath and Children in early March to discuss a range of issues, including bringing the new facility on stream.

The overall spend on palliative care by the Health Service Executive in 2008 was in the region of €78 million. This included new funding of €3 million provided last year to undertake various service developments. The executive was asked to prioritise palliative care service developments in the context of a framework over the next five years. The resulting action plan document, Palliative Care Services: Five-Year Development Framework 2009-2013, was recently submitted to the Department of Health and Children and is currently under consideration. This document details the actions and initiatives necessary to address the gaps in palliative care service provision, against the recommendations set out in the national advisory committee on palliative care 2001. The Health Service Executive's four administrative areas, with the full participation of voluntary and statutory palliative care providers, has developed a set of key priorities for addressing gaps in service provision in the next five years.

The Deputy will appreciate that all developments are now contingent on current economic and budgetary pressures. The Health Service Executive has been asked to undertake a rigorous examination of how existing funding might be reconfigured or reallocated to ensure maximum service provision is achieved. The Government is clearly committed to the development of comprehensive palliative care services. As I have outlined to the House, the Department of Health and Children will continue to work with the Health Service Executive and the voluntary sector to advance this objective.

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