Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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160. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 583 of 17 December 2020 and 646 of 3 February 2021, the reason that the HSE has refused to disclose the location of the 18 ambulatory care hubs; if his Department has been provided with locations for some or all of these hubs; if so, the locations of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30469/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The development of Ambulatory Care Hubs or, more properly, Community Specialist Teams, is an operational issue and is a matter for the HSE.

The Department was provided with an update from the HSE in April 2021 that work was underway to identify short-, medium- and long-term options for accommodating Specialist Teams across the Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs). It is understood that this work was conducted in line with standard HSE Estates processes in terms of planning for system wide accommodation needs and included consultation with CHOs and local and national estates.

The Department has not been formally advised by the HSE of the location of the 18 Community Specialist Teams. However, through work on other Oireachtas business, the Department has recently become aware that Community Healthcare West is to develop teams in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway and Galway City in the first phase of the rollout and in Castlebar, Co. Mayo in the second phase.

As noted above, this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue and is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.