Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. A central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated health care with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services to enable a home first approach. Primary care centres play an essential role in the delivery of that objective and significant progress has been made in the delivery of these centres nationally. These centres support the delivery of integrated care by facilitating closer co-ordination and co-operation among health professionals from across different disciplines. They also provide a single point of access to services for the individual and can serve as a resource more broadly for the community. There are currently 165 primary care centres operational and 12 more are scheduled to be delivered during 2023.

The Irishtown and Ringsend primary care centre is one such centre facilitating a range of services, including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, public health nursing, physiotherapy, psychology, dental services, general practice services and community medical doctors. The HSE has advised that there has been no specific reduction in services in the Irishtown and Ringsend primary care centre. At present, the management and oversight function for Irishtown and Ringsend primary care centre and all HSE services connected to the centre are transferring from CHO 7 to CHO 6. The HSE has assured the Department that this transition of services refers to the management of the services only and not the services themselves.

The transition has commenced, and it is expected that the services currently available will continue to be delivered. In fact, the HSE has advised of plans for the addition of podiatry services to be made available to the population of Irishtown and Ringsend. Currently, unfortunately, dietetics is not provided in the area due to recruitment challenges. The Minister, however, has been assured that active recruitment measures are ongoing and that it is expected this service will soon be available. The HSE has also assured the Department that CHO 6 will continue the recruitment process for current vacancies in Irishtown and Ringsend primary care centre and that HSE management in CHO 6 will be supported by their counterparts in CHO 7 during the transfer to ensure there is a seamless transition of services, which are management services.

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