Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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479. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to create new places for residential care in County Mayo; if not, the reason therefor; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12102/18]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Public residential care units are an essential part of our healthcare infrastructure. They provide about 5,000 long stay beds, amounting to approximately 20% of the total stock of nursing home beds nationally. There are also about 2,000 short stay community public beds.

While the care delivered to residents in our community hospitals is generally of a very high standard, many of these services are delivered in buildings that are less than ideal in the modern context. It is important therefore that we upgrade our public bed stock and this is the aim of the 5 year Capital Investment Programme for Community Nursing Units which was announced in 2016. This provides the framework to allow for an enhanced programme to replace, upgrade and refurbish these care facilities, as appropriate. Significant work was undertaken to determine the most optimum scheduling of projects within the phased provision of funding to achieve compliance and registration with the Health Information and Quality Authority. The investment programme includes a number of facilities in Mayo.

The National Development Plan acknowledges the need for additional capacity requirements for the period to 2031 and that it expected that 4,500 additional short-term and long-term beds will be required provided across the public system in Community Nursing Units and other step-down facilities, as identified by the Health Capacity Review. Appraisal and planning across all Community Healthcare Organisations in line with health strategies and demographic needs will inform the selection of projects for delivery of these new beds and additional capacity.