Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is not a more important resource we could be discussing here. Nobody will appreciate the importance of this resource until their own family requires its services. On behalf of everybody in the State, I thank Senator Boyhan for raising this important issue and for giving me the opportunity to respond to it.

The HSE has advised that the complexity and acuity of patients referred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital for rehabilitation programmes has increased in recent years, resulting in greater challenges for the hospital. In response to this situation, management at the hospital took the decision in late 2016 to reduce its existing bed capacity by 12 beds in order to enable the hospital to provide a safe and appropriate level of care to patients from within its existing resources. Eight of these beds were in the brain injury programme and four in the spinal cord system of care programme.

The Department of Health has been assured that the HSE has been actively engaging with the National Rehabilitation Hospital since this time with a view to optimising capacity in the hospital and to address ongoing concerns regarding funding. It should be noted that the bed capacity situation is made more difficult as a result of the challenges associated with discharging patients with complex needs.

I am pleased to report that the situation at the hospital has improved significantly in recent months. In September-October 2017, funding was secured to reopen four of the closed beds. Two brain injury programme beds were reopened in September, while in October another brain injury programme bed reopened along with one bed in the spinal cord system of care programme. In late December 2017, additional funding was secured to reopen a further two beds in the brain injury programme, through the assistance of the HSE’s national social care division as part of its winter planning strategy 2017-2018.As things currently stand, a total of six beds have re-opened at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, five of which are in the brain injury programme and one of which is in the spinal cord system of care programme.

The Government recognises the excellent rehabilitation programme which the National Rehabilitation Hospital delivers and the hospital’s excellent patient outcomes. In terms of capital developments, the priority at the present time is the delivery of replacement accommodation at the hospital. This development will see the existing ward accommodation replaced by a new fit-for-purpose ward accommodation block of 120 single en suiterooms with integrated therapy spaces, a new sports hall, a hydrotherapy unit and a temporary concourse as well as clinical and ancillary spaces. It will be a major enhancement for rehabilitation services in the country and will have a direct and significant impact on patient recovery by providing an optimal ward and therapeutic environment for patient treatment.

Construction works are currently under way and the new development is expected to be operational in 2020. Funding for phases I and II of this major redevelopment project was included in the Government’s recently announced Project Ireland 2040 policy initiative as part of an overall €10.9 billion strategic investment in health. The model of care proposed in the strategy is a three-tiered model of specialist rehabilitation services, that is: complex specialist tertiary services; specialist inpatient rehabilitation units; and community based specialist neuro-rehabilitation teams.

As a first step, a managed clinical rehabilitation network demonstration project is in development to establish collaborative care pathways for people with complex neuro-rehabilitation care and support accommodation needs. The National Rehabilitation Hospital will be participating in this demonstration project, along with Peamount Healthcare and the Royal Hospital Donnybrook.