Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Senator, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for providing the opportunity to update the House on Drimnagh primary care centre. 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 between health professionals across different disciplines. They also provide a single point of access to services for the individual and can serve more broadly as a resource for the community. There are currently 165 primary care centres operational, with 14 more under construction and 12 of these are scheduled to be delivered during 2023. We have seen huge investment in primary care centres throughout the country over the past ten years. They are a new departure and they have been welcomed by the various communities.

The Drimnagh primary care centre will be located on the existing site at Curlew Road. It will provide vital services in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7 and specifically in the south Dublin suburb of Drimnagh. Funding was allocated in capital programme 2022 to commence the design process for Drimnagh primary care centre. A design team has been appointed and the preliminary design process is under way. The local service is reviewing accommodation requirements to ensure the building will accommodate the services and primary care teams required to deliver the healthcare needs to the Drimnagh area. Capital approval has been granted to complete a strategic assessment report, SAR, for Drimnagh primary care centre, and a consultant is currently being appointed to complete the SAR.

The primary care centre in Drimnagh is envisioned to facilitate a primary care team, including: addiction and older persons services; older persons day care services alongside public health and community nursing; physiotherapy; occupational therapy; speech and language therapy; dietetics; and counselling. It will also consist of three general practitioner suites, which are important because we have seen GPs move into primary care centres and it is nearly a one-stop shop for people when they have to have other issues identified.

It will also include a day care centre for persons with Alzheimer's illness, which is close to my heart. To date, we have 40 Alzheimer's-specific day care centres open and we have a great working relationship with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. During Covid we discovered from infection prevention and control that some of the premises we were providing services on for dementia-specific day care, that they probably were not fit for purpose for infection prevention and control measures. We spent a lot of time and money during Covid to make sure these services were fit for purpose. We need them everywhere and it would be fantastic to see a specific day care centre for people with Alzheimer's disease. Some 11 people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease every day of the week and we have 64,000 people in the country with a dementia diagnosis. However, we probably have as many people with dementia who do not have that diagnosis.

The primary care centre will also have a community centre, including a crèche, which will be great too. These services will be integrated with the proposed on-site GP service and provide an integrated service to the public all under one roof. As the Senator knows, all capital development proposals must progress through a number of approval stages, in line with the public spending code, including detailed appraisal, planning, design and procurement, before funding for each stage can be confirmed. Having listened to and had so many meetings with the Minister, he is frustrated with the slow pace of this, including the appraisal of the planning, the design and the procurement. He is hoping to expedite that across all capital spends for health services.