Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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464. To ask the Minister for Health the steps he is taking to deal with the ongoing problem of delayed discharges because of a shortage of home care packages, nursing home places and under-funding of the fair deal scheme; the number of home care packages and fair deal cases that have been approved in each of the past three months with a breakdown per health area. [2771/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Delayed discharges arise when a patient has been clinically discharged from an acute hospital but remains in an acute hospital bed, thus rendering that bed unavailable for patients who need admission. In Budget 2015 the Government allocated €25m to tackle the problem of delayed discharges and this additional funding is being applied across residential and community services to reflect the varying needs of patients.

Of this €25m:

- €10m has been allocated to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme which has resulted in 300 extra approvals and shortening the waiting time for approval from 17 weeks to 11 weeks;

- €8m is being used to augment short-term residential care capacity and has provided for 50 additional short stay beds which have been sourced from the private sector, 65 more are to come on stream in March 2015;

- €5m is being used for home care services which will provide 400 additional Home Care Packages to benefit 600 discharges across targeted hospitals; and

- €2m has been used to strengthen Community Intervention Teams which has facilitated 571 people to be seen in their own home and 14 patients to be discharged from the Dublin hospitals over the weekend of the 10th and 11th of January 2015.

The HSE is looking at every possible option for alternative accommodation, including vacant beds in private nursing homes to address delayed discharges. Since January 5th 2015, the HSE has been working to match patients whose acute care has been completed but who require ongoing residential care with suitable placements. This will see a potential movement of 250 patients across the country from acute hospitals to other suitable facilities.

The latter part of your question, which requests the number of Home Care Packages and Fair Deal cases that have been approved in the past three months with a breakdown per health area, is a service matter and it has been forwarded to the HSE to reply to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my private office and they will follow up the matter with them.