Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise to seek action on an ongoing issue. The provision of home care packages in counties Mayo, Roscommon and Galway has reached a critical point. Not only has this year's budget for those packages been spent but in addition there has been an overspend of €5 million. I spoke last night to a woman whose husband is in Mayo General Hospital and who has been told there is a freeze on the provision of home care packages. A man is being kept in hospital, possibly at a cost of €1,000 a day, because he and his wife cannot get the help they need to bring him home. I wonder whether this is acceptable to Pat Healy, who is the HSE national director for elderly people's services. I do not think it is on. It is not cost-effective to keep people in acute hospitals or step-down beds when they could be at home. The best place for somebody in these circumstances is at home, if that is possible at all. Families need support. It is really a contradiction. If this issue cannot be sorted, perhaps the Minister for Health can assist by taking it up with the HSE so that it can be sorted as a matter of urgency. This is a widespread problem in the three counties in question. If it is not solved, we will not be providing people with a proper health service. Additional funds are required as a matter of urgency. We cannot simply tell people they have to wait for a few months because the budget has been spent. That is not how one's health works and it is not how a health care system should work. The most cost-effective place to provide health care is at home.