James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 13: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that 133 terminally ill patients are seeking access to hospice care and are being forced to wait days for inpatient, home care and day care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20632/09]

Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Government policy in relation to Palliative Care is contained in the Report of the National Advisory Committee on Palliative Care (2001). In 2008 the HSE was asked to prioritise palliative care service developments in the medium term. As a result "The Palliative Care Services Five Year Development Framework 2009-201" has recently been submitted to my Department by the HSE and is currently under consideration.

Patients who are diagnosed with a terminal illness or who are in the last stages of their treatment are initially dealt with by the relevant consultant and/or medical social worker and then referred for appropriate palliative services if required. To date the HSE has not collected national data on waiting times for hospice services but I am aware of a recent newspaper article which suggested that 133 terminally ill patients are waiting to access hospice care. Patients awaiting admission to an in-patient unit are generally either in an acute hospital where there is specialist palliative care input available, or in the community being attended to by a community based team. The HSE allocated €78m for Palliative Care services in 2008 and 2,655 people were treated in specialist in-patient units with 7,575 receiving home based specialist care. A further 729 people received intermediate palliative care and 1,865 received day care services.