Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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178. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which step-down, public or private nursing home beds are available or are being made available throughout the country with particular reference to general hospitals that have experienced overcrowding at accident and emergency departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3021/15]

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, 145 of which were in acute hospitals and 107 of these are now in long-term residential care; €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. An additional 65 are to come on stream on a phased basis from 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 is being used to strengthen Community Intervention Teams which to date has facilitated 571 people to be seen in their own home.

Further to this in July of 2014, the HSE allocated €5m for an initiative to improve access to appropriate care for older people. To date this has funded over 300 transitional care beds for patients in acute hospitals who are on the Nursing Homes Support Scheme national placement list.

The HSE is looking at every possible option for alternative accommodation, including vacant beds in private nursing homes to address delayed discharges. Since January 5 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.