Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht deis a thabhairt dom labhairt ar an ábhar seo sa Teach inniu.

The Government’s core stated objective is to promote care in the community so that people can continue to live with confidence, security and dignity in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. This is clearly what older people want and what everybody in this House wants. We also have patients who are in genuine need of residential care, either on a long-stay or a short-stay basis, and their safety and well-being is of paramount concern. Residential care is provided through a mix of public, voluntary and private provision. It is worth highlighting that the budget for long-term residential care in 2019 is €985 million, and at any one time an average of more than 23,000 clients will be in receipt of financial support.

The HSE is responsible for the delivery of health and personal social services, including those at facilities such as Macroom Community Hospital. Operating a 24-hour care service seven days a week, the hospital provides support to the elderly population of Macroom town and neighbouring parishes in North Lee West. There is a multidisciplinary team which looks after the needs of the residents, providing long-stay care, convalescence, respite and palliative care. The maximum number of residents which can be accommodated is 38. The existing residential care setting provides multi-occupancy shared bedroom accommodation, where highly dependent residents who are in need of 24-hour high-support nursing care or are in transition from hospital to nursing home care are accommodated together.

As the Deputy is aware, community hospitals like Macroom are an essential part of our national infrastructure and we are determined to maintain our public stock. The standard of care delivered to residents in these units is generally very high, but we recognise that many public units are housed in buildings that are less than ideal in the modern context. Without these units, however, many older people would not have access to the care that they need.

On that basis, we need to upgrade our public bed stock and this is the aim of the five-year capital investment programme for community nursing units announced in 2016. The programme provides the framework to replace, upgrade and refurbish these care facilities, as appropriate.

Significant work was undertaken to determine the most optimum scheduling of projects within the phased provision of funding to achieve compliance and registration with the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. This programme includes a number of facilities in Cork, including Macroom Community Hospital. The Deputy will appreciate that all healthcare infrastructure developments require a lead-in time to complete the various stages. These stages include appraisal, project brief, design feasibility, a review of costing estimates and finalisation of financing.

I have visited Macroom hospital and updated the staff and management to the effect that the project was at design stage and planning permission is due to be lodged shortly with a view to completion by 2021. There was considerable change in the project scope which required recommencing the approval process. The project will proceed under the capital investment programme, which is part of Project Ireland 2040. Further progress will be subject to the granting of planning permission and the availability of funding for capital projects.

The HSE capital plan for 2019 is being finalised and will be submitted for approval to the Minister for Health very shortly. This will propose the projects that can progress in 2019 and beyond, having regard to the total available capital funding. All health capital projects currently at various stages of development are considered as part of this process.

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