Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, both of whom are actively involved in this. I thank Deputy Stanton for raising this issue and providing me with the opportunity to update the Dáil thereon.

This Government is committed to the delivery of Sláintecare and to providing increased levels of service in primary care and community settings. Significant funding in recent years, including provision of annual funding of €195 million in 2023, is enabling implementation of the enhanced community care, ECC, programme, which represents a programmatic and integrated approach to the development of the primary and community care sector. The programme aims to expand capacity in primary care and enable the reorientation of service delivery towards general practice and community-based services, thereby providing health services closer to a person’s home and reducing pressure on acute hospitals. It also enables a population-needs approach, enabling better local decision-making and involving citizens in determining the health needs of their local community.

The ECC has made excellent progress to date in establishing community healthcare networks, CHNs, and community specialist teams, CSTs, to provide care to older people and those with chronic disease in primary and community settings, with 94 of the 96 planned CHNs and 47 of the planned 60 CSTs already operational and providing services to patients nationally.

CSTs are consultant-led, multidisciplinary teams who provide integrated specialist healthcare to patients, with the teams for older persons and those for chronic disease management colocated in ambulatory care hubs in the community, conveniently located closer to home, thereby preventing unnecessary hospital attendances for those requiring access to these services. The hubs are usually adjacent to a primary care centre, with clinical governance being provided through the local model 3 or model 4 hospitals.

Already this year, the 23 operational specialist teams for older persons, which are part of the integrated care programme for older persons, which the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, would call the ICPOP, have delivered more than 22,000 patient contacts, with 12% of referrals being seen on the same day or the next day of referral. Some 64% of the patients treated by these ICPOP teams were discharged home, avoiding admission to hospital, where clinically appropriate to do so, and facilitating the home-first approach to care which is a key objective of the ECC programme.

The 24 operational CSTs for chronic disease management, CDM, have increased access to specialist care to those with COPD, asthma, cardiovascular disease and diabetes in the community setting, are aligned to the GP chronic disease management programme and have provided more than 28,000 patient contacts already this year, with almost 168,000 patients having been reviewed by their GP as part of the CDM programme.

The north Cork CDM hub will be located in Mallow, as the Deputy said, and will deliver services to the catchment area serviced by the CHN, namely, north-east Cork, east central Cork, Mallow, Charleville, Newmarket, Kanturk and Millstreet, a population of around 150,000. Recruitment of the required integrated care programme for chronic disease management, ICPCDM, consultant and health and social care professionals to staff the CST in the hub is ongoing and the HSE endeavours to have the hub operational as soon as possible.

I take on board what the Deputy said on the catchment area, population base and geography challenges.

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