Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The needs of patients in Galway will continue to be catered for. At the time there was a gap and local services figured out a way to fill it, whether it was the right way or not. In the current system, one can apply and, if it is approved, funding will be received from a national pot. The problem with the previous tendering process was that there were two nursing homes and other homes were excluded, which was not a fair system. It is now much fairer and people can apply for the nursing home closest to them and which suits their needs and if there is availability, the funding is available to everybody. Galway is one of the biggest users of transitional care in the country and is very well catered for. The decision has been taken to provide a national system and a pot of funding for which people can apply. Services have used their initiative and thought outside the box and nobody would disagree that they should do that but we now need to implement things in a much fairer way. It will take time and things are not perfect but, as time progresses, a much fairer system will be in place.

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