Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputy Bernard Durkan.

I welcome this debate and the opportunity to discuss the report of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare, of which I was a member. I thank my fellow colleagues who sat on the committee as well as the committee secretariat, the Trinity team and, in particular, the Chairman, Deputy Róisín Shortall, who worked so diligently on the report.

There is nothing startling in this document. At its core, it emphasises a move away from the traditional hospital setting to a more community-based approach to the delivery of our health services. Inpatient hospitalisation is required for some medical conditions.

7 o’clock

However, community health care is appropriate for numerous conditions and it offers many benefits. Patients who do not need intensive medical care can receive care in their own homes from registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and allied professionals. Nurses perform tasks such as changing dressings, monitoring and administering medications, drawing blood samples for laboratory tests and educating patients and family members. Home health aides perform tasks such as assisting patients with personal hygiene, preparing meals and helping patients eat, checking vital signs and performing light housekeeping tasks, allowing patients to remain in their own homes with their families while receiving the help that they need.

If nothing else in this report was implemented, a properly resourced and efficient primary care structure throughout this country could transform our system for the better. It would mean elderly residents in nursing homes would not longer have to be admitted through accident and emergency departments to get intravenous antibiotics. It would mean elderly and ill people in our community having the most basic of treatments in, or close to, their homes. It would mean general practitioners having access to diagnostics and a range of services currently only provided in a hospital setting. If I could distil our report down into one sentence it would be: there are a large number of patients admitted to our acute hospitals who do not need to be there. Their needs can, and should be, met in the community. I thank the Minister, Deputy Harris, for his positive comments and his clear understanding of the report and the health care needs of the country.

The implementation of the report will require an injection of funds both in capital costs and ongoing expenditure into the future. The report requires significant expenditure annually and I look forward to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's costing of the proposals.

See this speech in context