James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 238: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the proposals in place to fund, staff and resource HIQA to meet its remit under the fair deal, to have in place an inspectorate to inspect and evaluate private and public nursing homes here and to supply details of the amount of extra funding, staff numbers required and number of homes that have to be inspected; when all nursing homes will be inspected under the proposed new nursing home standards; when new regulations will be introduced by her Department to facilitate those new nursing home standards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33413/07]

Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The safety and well-being of older people living in nursing homes is of critical concern to this Government. We are committed to ensuring that quality care and patient safety comes first and that everyone receives the same high standard of quality-assured care.

A fundamental principle of the Health Service Reform Programme is to put the users of health and personal social services at the centre of the services. The Health Act 2007 reflects this principle and provides for the establishment of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). The objective of the Authority is to promote safety and quality in the provision of health and personal social services. The existing inspection and registration systems for residential services will be replaced by a strengthened and expanded system and the Act strengthens and modernises the registration and de-registration process.

Statutory responsibility is given to the Chief Inspector of Social Services for inspecting and registering children's residential centres, residential centres for people with disabilities and residential centres for older people, including private nursing homes. The Health Service Executive (HSE) is liaising with HIQA to facilitate this and transitional arrangements will be agreed as we move towards the new system of inspection.

Formal standards are a key requirement for inspection and registration. A new set of draft national standards for residential care was published in January 2007. The draft standards are designed to ensure the protection of residents, to safeguard and promote their health, welfare and quality of life and to ensure that there is a focus on the well-being, dignity and autonomy of older people. They set service providers the goal of providing a setting in which older people can experience a good quality of life.

The standards were developed by a working group which was chaired by the Department of Health and Children, and included the HSE, Social Service Inspectorate and the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board. As the Health Act, 2007 provides that the enhanced inspection function will be taken over by HIQA, the draft standards were formally referred to the Authority for consultation and finalisation.

HIQA published draft standards on 8 August, 2007 for public consultation. Members of the public, service users, their families, service providers and all those with an interest in residential care for older people were invited to submit their views on the draft. The results of the public consultation were discussed at the most recent meetings of the HIQA Working Group. It is expected that the standards will be finalised shortly. The next step will be to refer the standards to the Minister, following which Regulations will be drafted to give statutory underpinning to the Standards.

Since its establishment in May 2007, HIQA's priority has been to commence building its organisation and operational capacity. It has at this stage a staff of 60 which includes 18 in the Social Services Inspectorate. In 2007 it has a budget for current expenditure of €9.667m available for its overall operations. HIQA is now in the process of arranging the transfer of further inspectorate staff from the HSE and will also be carrying out direct recruitment for this function in 2008. The budget for HIQA for next year is currently being finalised and will represent a significant increase in its allocation over the 2007 funding.

I am satisfied that the resources required to carry out inspections under the new 'Standards' regime will be in place when the necessary Regulations are made. HIQA will not have a direct remit under the Fair Deal, but as described here, will have important functions relating to the safety and quality of nursing homes.