Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I understand it, there is no embargo but the Deputy spoke about issues with the hospital and trolleys. Since 2017, however, an additional 267 acute beds have been opened. The capacity programme for 2019 provides for a number of increases, namely, the provision of 75 acute beds and 70 community beds under the winter plan. Some 47 additional beds will include four high-dependency unit beds in Cork University Hospital, three in the Mater Hospital and a 40-bed modular build in South Tipperary General Hospital, which is due to be operational in the first week of January. Some 202 additional beds, of which 16 are critical care beds, will be provided during 2019, with a view to bringing this extra capacity into operation in quarter 1 of 2020.

On home care, which the Deputy mentioned, over €1.8 billion is available for 2019 for older persons' services. Of this, €985.8 million is available specifically for nursing home support schemes and €862 million is available for older persons' services. Despite the significant level of funding and service provision, demand for services continues to grow. The HSE is required to manage its budget and service provision throughout the year to ensure a balanced budget for 2019. As outlined in the HSE's national service plan for 2019, the HSE maximises the utilisation of current resources, prioritising those requiring discharge from acute hospitals and significant resources and services have been targeted in 2019 to facilitate timely access. In the winter of 2018 to 2019, the immediate focus was on reducing delayed patient discharges through mobilising the additional resources made available and ensuring that social care measures were effectively deployed to enable older people to move to a more appropriate care setting, including to step-down care or to transitional care in their own home with the supports they need. The Department of Health is engaging extensively with the HSE in the context of planning for winter, including consideration of the response to dealing with the current challenges, such as the high level of delayed transfers of care. While this engagement continues, the HSE has been authorised to undertake immediate action to mitigate the challenges. Engagement will continue over the coming weeks, having regard to the process for the 2020 Estimates.

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