Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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137. To ask the Minister for Health the options his Department is examining in order to meet the needs and concerns of the families who lost a family member in a nursing home (details supplied) during the Covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7948/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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There has been a very clear national commitment to continue to learn from the pandemic as the national and international understanding of the virus evolves, and where necessary to ensure that the public health-led approach evolves, as evidence and learning materialises.

The independent COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel was established, on foot of a NPHET recommendation, to examine the complex issues surrounding the management of COVID-19 among this particularly vulnerable cohort in nursing homes. This Expert Panel report has added further to our knowledge and learning. This report clearly outlines the key protective measures that we must ensure are in place across our nursing homes. These actions are based on learning from our own and the international experience of COVID-19 to date. The report also recommends additional analysis and examination of the relevant public health and other data sets in order that further causal and protective factors for COVID-19 clusters are identified. HIQA and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) jointly published an “Analysis of factors associated with outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in nursing homes in Ireland”, delivering on recommendation 6.7 of the Expert Panel report, to further the learning from the pandemic. Further data analysis work and learning will also continue, in line with other recommendations of the Expert Panel and HIQA and the HPSC are developing a further update to this analysis.

Work to progress the recommendations of the Expert Panel report, particularly those recommendations requiring a priority focus in the response to COVID-19, is ongoing across all of the health agencies and stakeholders. Continued learning and understanding of progression of the disease in Ireland is an integral part of those recommendations. €17.6m has been allocated in Budget 2022 to continue implementation of the Expert Panel recommendations.

The Department requested, as a once off measure and for the purposes of providing additional supports, that the Patient Advocacy Service extend its service to Dealgan House Nursing Home in order to support families during this time. I understand that the CEO of the HSE met with family members of residents in the nursing home. Minister Donnelly and I also met with the families of residents to hear their perspectives.

The establishment and parameters of any broader review or evaluation, following the pandemic, of the State’s response to the COVID-19 would be a matter for Government to decide on at the appropriate time. However, as noted, ongoing learning from the pandemic has been a key component of the management of COVID-19 and to add further to this, the Minister has recently established a Public Health Reform Expert Advisory Group which, amongst other things, will initially focus on identifying learnings from the public health components of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland with a view towards strengthening health protection generally and future public health pandemic preparedness specifically.