Dáil debates
Thursday, 2 February 2023
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Primary Care Centres
5:00 pm
Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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In recent weeks, I have met residents in Ringsend and Irishtown. They are greatly concerned that services are being moved from Ringsend and Irishtown primary care centre to the Meath Hospital. Residents are, quite frankly, dismayed by this decision. It will be a great imposition and have a major impact on them, and especially on older people.
Can the Minister of State confirm that this change is going to happen and that services will be moved from Ringsend and Irishtown primary care centre to the Meath Hospital site? These services are important. Residents received letters stating that the physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions were going to be moved out of Irishtown. This is a well populated area, especially with older people, and this move will have a major impact on people. Regarding these older people, Deputy Moynihan, on the previous matter, mentioned keeping people in their homes. This move is going to fast-track people into hospital and lead to a deterioration in people's health. People are receiving these services because they already have mobility issues. There is no transport link from Ringsend and Irishtown to the Meath Hospital just off the South Circular Road. At the last general election and even at the last by-election, the Government candidate spoke about a 15-minute city. This is going to make a 15-minute city impossible because it will take two bus journeys for people to reach the Meath Hospital. When they arrive there and get off the second bus journey, they will then have to take a long walk up to the hospital.
This issue is about the restricting of access. This move is restricting access for older people in Ringsend and Irishtown to community services. People are genuinely dismayed that they will have to move from a perfectly good primary healthcare centre up to the Meath Hospital. In the letters sent to residents, I noticed that these are signed off with "Building a Better Health Service". These are also signed off with a subheading referring to "care, compassion, trust and learning". None of those elements appear to apply to this decision. There certainly does not appear to have been any learning by the Government if it is going to move a perfectly good health centre, and these services therein, to the Meath Hospital. This move will have a major impact and the Government must review this decision. It should ensure, instead, that it is increasing the services in the primary healthcare centre in Ringsend and Irishtown and not reducing them. I ask the Government to act on this issue.
Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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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.
Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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That sounds positive. Clearly, though, this information has not been communicated very well.
Many people in Ringsend and Irishtown received these letters and they interpreted them to mean their service would be moved to the Meath Hospital primary care centre. My understanding, and the Minister of State might correct me, is that the files and records will be kept and stored in the Meath Hospital but the services, including additional services, will be at the primary care centre in Irishtown and Ringsend. Is that a fair analysis? Clearly, this is a huge catchment area for people who need these services. These services are vital to keeping people at home. Ringsend and Irishtown are home to a large pool of people who need these services, and they are vital to ensuring the community stays together, stays active and stays engaged. As stated, the idea that people would have to move out of Ringsend and Irishtown for these services is madness. It is positive to hear that services will be increased and that they will be delivered on site.