Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I am taking the debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who is on Government business elsewhere.

St. Vincent's Community Nursing Unit is located on the outskirts of Mountmellick and provides much-needed residential services for the people of Laois. It comes under the remit of the HSE. Deputies will be aware that the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, registers and inspects residential care facilities throughout the country. The current registration status of the hospital includes a condition that no new residents may be admitted, except to the palliative care suite, until a funded plan to reconfigure the physical environment has been submitted to HIQA.

While the issue raised refers specifically to the admissions restriction at St. Vincent's unit, I am aware that at a wider level there are concerns about the implications of the national standards for residential facilities more generally. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who has responsibility for services for older people in my Department, addressed this issue in the House last week in a response during a Topical Issue debate. I will briefly restate what she said on that occasion, and I endorse her comments.

The Government's recently published capital programme, Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021, commits to a major multiannual programme of capital investment in public and voluntary social care facilities. The overall programme includes €300 million for the development of community nursing units for older people and new improved models of accommodation for people with a disability, particularly in respect of de-congregation. There is further potential to develop more projects through public private partnerships. Building on investments already scheduled, this additional funding will allow the relevant facilities to comply with the national standards by the end of the new capital plan period, that is, by 2021. A major national programme will now be put in place to address on a prioritised basis the refurbishment and new-build requirement.

The shortage of public capital funds in recent years due to the economic crisis has meant a significant number of publicly-provided or voluntary-provided services have not met the physical infrastructure standards within the previously agreed timeframe of 1 July 2015. The works required range from refurbishment to replacement of facilities concerned. As a result of the capital programme, the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, outlined a revised policy and timeframe to ensure all public and voluntary services can demonstrate to HIQA that they will achieve the relevant national standards by 2021. In the coming weeks the HSE will submit to HIQA its plans, focused at individual service level, to meet the requirements of standard 25, the standard relating to physical infrastructure. These individual plans will be in line with the revised policy timeframe and will detail proposed capital expenditure at each individual centre. The HSE will assist the voluntary providers with which it has a service level agreement in submitting these individual plans.

This decision was absolutely necessary to ensure that older people continue to have access to the services they need. The imposition of a compliance timeline that was unachievable would have led to facilities closing throughout the country with others having to reducing their bed numbers. Older people and their families as well as others who need these services would not thank us if that were allowed to happen. It would certainly have exacerbated overcrowding in our acute hospitals - in some cases, this is already happening.

While compliance with this particular standard has been particularly problematic for our public units, I am keen to acknowledge the considerable financial investment made by private and independent nursing homes in recent years in an effort to meet these environmental and other standards. I hope that HIQA will give consideration to any similar plans to achieve full compliance that may be put forward by the private and independent sector where issues arise as well.

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