Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be more than happy to take the Deputy up on his invitation to meet those professionals and I will be in touch with him to arrange that. I understand he has had a particular interest for a long number of years in cardiac rehabilitation services and concerns around the potential shift of after-care services from a hospital to a community setting, as he has outlined.

The policy context for the development in cardiac rehabilitation is the current cardiovascular strategy, Changing Cardiovascular Health: National Cardiovascular Health Policy 2010-2019. Most recently, the HIQA health technology assessment and the national self-management support framework identified cardiac rehabilitation as one of the most cost-effective methods of supporting patients to self-manage and, most importantly, to improve clinical and health service usage outcomes. The provision of cardiac rehabilitation capacity to meet the population needs is a top priority under the self-management support framework.

This framework is being prepared by the health and well-being division within the integrated care programme for chronic disease, and the actions concerning cardiac rehabilitation will be to combine the relevant recommendations of the 2010 to 2019 policy and include the recommendation for the development of a community model of cardiac rehabilitation to make services more accessible. I will be happy to meet the healthcare professionals.

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