Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for raising this important issue. The Galway Hospice Foundation is a voluntary organisation. It was established in 1986 when a group of local doctors and nurses developed hospice services for Galway city and county. At present, the Galway Hospice provides inpatient, home care and day care services. Its activities are funded by a combination of public donations and moneys received from the HSE.

Galway Hospice provides significant community services which are not funded from the HSE allocation. The HSE funds a 12-bed inpatient unit in Galway Hospice for which the allocation was ¤3.5 million in 2011 and ¤3.4 million in 2012. Funding allocations for 2013 have not been made yet by the HSE. However, the allocation identified for palliative care in the HSE service plan for 2013 has been reduced by 1.6% and a proportionate increase would, in the normal course, fall across the whole spread of service providers.

The HSE National Service Plan 2013 provides funding of ¤73 million for palliative care. Approximately 75% to 80% of this is provided to the main voluntary organisations. The palliative care priorities identified in the HSE service plan in 2013 are to support the delivery and improve the quality of generalist and specialist palliative care services in line with strategic policy direction and improve resource utilisation, including systematic assessment of need, access and referral, and progress the development of paediatric palliative care services.

The HSE commits in 2013 to the following access targets: 92% of specialist inpatient beds provided within seven days; and 82% of home, non-acute hospital, long-term residential care delivered by community teams within seven days.

A baseline study on the provision of hospice-specialist palliative care services in Ireland 2004 confirmed, on an objective basis, that there are regional variances in the provision of hospice-specialist palliative care in all care environments. The HSE accepts that the counties of the former Western Health Board, namely, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, have a low per capita spend on palliative care services, but correcting this in present circumstances presents obvious difficulties, and other regions also face significant challenges. While funding is under pressure right across the health system, the HSE will actively engage with Galway Hospice to consider issues arising, including core funding deficits, service planning and regional palliative care requirements in HSE west. It is expected that further meetings between HSE management and Galway Hospice will occur in the next couple of weeks.

Galway Hospice has presented a discussion paper to the HSE regarding the future development of palliative care services in the Galway, Mayo and Roscommon areas. The discussion paper envisages a number of capital developments including: the building of a 12-bed specialist inpatient unit in Castlebar; an eight-bed intermediate bed unit in Roscommon; the provision of six additional interim inpatient beds at Galway Hospice; and an enhancement of the outpatient facilities and of the home care and day care services for County Galway.

Apart from the capital costs of these projects there would be a requirement for significant additional revenue allocations. Galway Hospice has held some preliminary discussions with the HSE in Galway on these matters and the expectation is that these discussions will continue in the coming months.
Through ongoing engagement and discussions between the HSE and the Galway Hospice and other stakeholders in the coming months, I would hope that progress can be achieved towards an optimal outcome.