Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it serves us well in our understanding of public health to differentiate between a response in the community and a response in terms of long-term residential care settings as though they are not linked. Had we not managed to flatten the curve as a people in the community, I shudder to think what the situation in our long-term residential care facilities would be like. I shudder to think how many staff would not be able to go to work in those facilities. I shudder to think how much more prevalent the virus would be. In public health policy terms it always makes sense to put in place measures to suppress the virus in the community. I assure Deputy Donnelly that this was not entirely sequential, that a lot of work was ongoing in parallel. I assure the Deputy that nursing homes do have a seat at the table of NPHET. However, it is not for nursing home owners but for the people who regulate nursing homes, the people who set the standards for which this House has legislated, the people who set the standards to ensure that our residential care facilities are safe. HIQA has been a member of the National Public Health Emergency Team since the very start. HIQA knows nursing homes better than any of us - upside down and inside out. It even knows the floor plans. HIQA is therefore on the National Public Health Emergency Team. I note that Deputy Donnelly has not asked for representation for the nurses who work in the nursing homes or other staff members but actually for the nursing home owners. I do not believe that would be an appropriate membership of NPHET, but it is appropriate - I agree with him on this - that we listen to Nursing Homes Ireland. We have a very good relationship with Nursing Homes Ireland and I am now meeting them twice a week. I assure the Deputy that there are people on that call on NPHET. HIQA is on it, the HSE is on it and senior officials in the Department of Health are on it. I am looking at other ways we can further involve them in the decision-making process because they have an important role to play.

Regarding my attendance at NPHET, I do not attend it. I do not believe it would be appropriate for me to do so. NPHET is an opportunity for the Chief Medical Officer to engage on a technical level and often a scientific level. I am briefed before and after NPHET meetings and am in constant contact, as the Deputy can imagine, with the chair of NPHET, namely, the Chief Medical Officer.

With regard to nursing homes, on 19 February, before we had a case of Covid-19 in this country, the head of the HSE held a meeting with the CEO and chair of Nursing Homes Ireland to discuss their Covid-19 preparedness. I also acknowledge on the record of this House that the World Health Organization did not publish its infection prevention and control guidance for long-term care facilities in the context of Covid-19 until 21 March after we had put a number of measures in place so a lot of work has been done with regard to nursing homes. The Deputy is right. This is the front line now. We now need to look at how we can break the chains of transmission in nursing homes and other long-term residential facilities, as we have begun to do in the community. This is why the decision by NPHET now to test residents and staff in those settings who are asymptomatic makes sense. People can ask why we did not it before now. It is a valid question but the truthful answer is that now as we have grown our capacity, we are directing it into that area in terms of a priority.

Deputy Browne is right. I will work with him and this Oireachtas about how a task force could happen. I think it makes sense. We have put in place a number of supports, including gov.ie/together, which is a website that tries to pull everything together in terms of what somebody can do to protect his or her mental and physical health during this crisis. We have also allocated an additional €1 million towards online counselling services for staff and the public. If more funding is needed there, that will certainly be forthcoming. From my conversations with the HSE, I know that a number of supports are in place regarding occupational health around bereavement and mental health but I am sure that this is an area where we can do better so I would be very happy to engage with Deputy Browne, his party and the Oireachtas on this. There are things other than Covid-19 than can make people sick and mental illness and protecting our mental health are areas we really need to watch. There is a lot of tragedy, grief and difficulty in families and communities and the Deputy's suggestion of a task force under the auspices of this Oireachtas at the right time seems sensible.

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