Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Home. I heard about it recently.

A key principle underpinning Government policies is to support older people to live in their homes with dignity and independence for as long as possible. In recent years there has been a shift in healthcare provision focused towards home care. Home support services are key in facilitating older people to remain at home, and with our ageing population, they will become even more important in the future.

While our 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, we also have patients who are in genuine need of residential care, either on a long or short-stay basis. 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 2020 is in excess of €1 billion. The Health Service Executive is responsible for the delivery of health and personal social services, including those at facilities such as Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Unit. There are 27 beds in the unit providing continuing care, respite and palliative care, as the Deputy has said. The HSE has confirmed that it is committed to ongoing improvements at the unit. The current capital programme of works is managed and delivered by the HSE’s estate division. I understand there have been extensive works carried out in Dean Maxwell in 2019 and in 2020, which includes the repainting of bedrooms, new lights fitted, rewiring completed throughout the unit, and fire safety works completed in early 2020 with sign-off by fire safety consultants in June 2020. Further development works were completed in April 2020 with a new nursing office, clinical room, and a hairdressing and activity area.

Dean Maxwell remains a facility registered under the Health Act 2007 with HIQA for the provision of a range of care services to older people. The unit is currently registered until March 2022. The most recent inspection report was published by HIQA on 11 September 2019. The report was very positive and the facility has complied with HIQA standards. However, HIQA has recommended that from 2021 the single bedrooms in the unit are unsuitable to meet the needs of the residents due to their current infrastructure.

There is no capital project in the HSE capital plan to replace Dean Maxwell. The HSE intends to move the emphasis at the Dean Maxwell facility from long-stay to short-stay care, which is an increasing area of service requirement. However, it is the intention that this will take place over a number of years and the changes will occur in a seamless fashion to ensure that they will not impact on individual service users. Were any such eventuality to arise in an unavoidable individual situation, the HSE has assured the Department that the resident or his or her family would be fully involved and included in any plans. Dean Maxwell services will continue and will be supported by the other community nursing units with increased capacity in north Tipperary. This will create county-wide access to older person services, which will include long-stay, short-stay, respite care, palliative care and day services. The HSE has assured the Department that it is committed to engaging in partnership with all of the relevant stakeholders. This engagement will be key to prioritising the service requirement for the population of north Tipperary and I inform the Deputy that I am also willing to engage on this issue.

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