Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 232: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children her views on charging families who block the discharge of patients; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19614/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I presume that the Deputy is referring to a suggestion made by a consultancy firm, Tribal Secta, which was commissioned by the Health Service Executive to carry out a mapping and efficiency exercise across ten acute hospitals. The consultants were asked to identify blockages, causes and potential solutions in the patient's journey from the decision to admit from the Emergency Department, to discharge.

The Report refers to a significant number of patients in the acute hospitals in question who had completed the acute phase of their care but could not be discharged to a more appropriate setting for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons identified was a shortage of appropriate care and convalescence facilities for older people. Another was that the families or carers of patients do not always accept the first placement that becomes available and sometimes refuse to allow patients to be discharged from hospital. The Report suggested that hospitals might consider imposing charges in such cases.

Providing more sub-acute care options is an important and integral part of the measures being taken to tackle problems in A & E departments. So far this year, 350 patients have been discharged from acute hospitals to intermediate care beds; additional home care packages have facilitated the discharge of a further 200 patients, and over 250 patients have been discharged under the private nursing homes initiative.

The inter-Departmental Working Group on long-term care for older people has submitted its report to Government, where it is under consideration. In relation to long-term care capacity, the HSE is preparing a report on such capacity for my Department and it is expected that this report will be available over the next few weeks. I have not received and am not considering any submission suggesting the charging measure in the Tribal Secta report.