John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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26. To ask the Minister for Health the number of extra home support hours which will be provided for older persons in CHO 7 in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12222/19]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to home support has been a priority for Government.

The 2019 Health Service Executive National Service Plan provides for 17.9 million home support hours to be delivered to over 53,000 people. The HSE's Community Healthcare Operational Plan, which is due to be published shortly, will set out in detail the type and volume of health and personal social care services that will be provided in the community in the current year. Home Support targets for 2019 will identify both the number of home support hours to be delivered and the number of persons that will be provided with a home support service in CHO7.  Whilst awaiting final determination of the 2019 targets CHO7 continues to allocate home support hours to new clients from those who no longer require the service.

In addition, I am informed by the HSE that a total of 134 Home Support packages have been commenced in the CHO 7 area under the Winter Planning Initiative 2018-2019 to facilitate discharge from hospital and for hospital avoidance.