Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Fitzpatrick for raising this important issue and for giving me the opportunity to address the House on this matter. A key objective of the Government’s health policy is to support people to live in dignity and independence in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. Respite services are a key element of achieving this, both to improve the quality of life of patients and to provide support to carers who are the backbone of the provision of care services in Ireland.

Respite care is provided in a number of different ways and settings. It may be provided via an enhanced home care package for the period of respite or in public or private nursing home beds. Respite beds are also contracted by the HSE in private nursing homes where it is used to boost the availability of such beds to meet demand within the resources available in the local health office or integrated services area. In addition, there are 2,000 short stay public beds within our health system which include step-up-step-down care, intermediate care and rehab and respite care, which are used in a flexible manner to meet local needs at any given time. These are interchangeable for use depending on demand in the units so the number of respite beds in any one month can fluctuate depending on demand for the short stay beds.

Louth County Hospital is an 89-bed hospital including 28 day beds and 61 inpatient beds that provide palliative, step-down and rehabilitation care. Efforts to expand capacity in Louth County Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda include the opening of 24 new beds in a modular build at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda within the last six months. The purpose of the new capacity is to improve patient flow from the emergency department and assist in early admission decisions. In addition, as part of the winter initiative 2015-16, ten new beds were provided in February 2016. The new capacity includes the elderly medical rehabilitation service, the purpose of which is to facilitate discharges from Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda. As the Deputy rightly highlighted, there are currently no specifically designated respite beds in Louth County Hospital. However, inpatient beds can be used flexibly to meet patients' needs. Respite services are provided in a range of other settings in the community, in nursing homes or as appropriate in specific residential centres, for example, the St. Oliver Plunkett Hospital, which is designed to provide respite care for older people, and the children’s respite centre in Lordship which opened in 2014. These services can be accessed via the local public health nurse or GP.

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is one of nine hospitals targeted under the winter initiative 2016-17 to reduce overcrowding and improve winter preparedness. This will include the expansion of community intervention teams in the Louth-Meath region and an increase in home care packages to support the discharge of patients at the hospital.

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