Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1496. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the campaign by an organisation (details supplied) for immediate action on the reform of regulation in the nursing home sector; and his views on the recent submission by the organisation to the Oireachtas Committee on Health which raises a number of issues (details supplied). [29449/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has received correspondence from members of the Nursing Home Quality Initiative (NHQI) and has recently responded to members, providing the current position on the issues highlighted.

Since the start of the pandemic there has been significant and ongoing consideration of the impact of COVID-19 and the evolution of the response to it, as evidence and knowledge emerged, and as national and international understanding of the virus evolved. Throughout, this has included a specific and sustained focus on older persons, and in particular, those resident in nursing homes.

The independent COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel was established in May 2020 and the Expert Panel’s report, published in August 2020, outlines the key protective measures that we must ensure are in place across our nursing homes, based on learning from our own and the international experience of COVID-19. The report also makes a series of recommendations in relation to broader reform of older persons’ care. Work is ongoing across health agencies and stakeholders to progress the recommendations of the Expert Panel. Three progress reports have been published, while a fourth progress report is due to be published shortly. All progress reports are available on my Department’s website (www.gov.ie/en/publication/c7f5b-covid-19-nursing-homes-expert-panel-report-implementation-oversight-team/).

One area of reform recommended by the Expert Panel relates to a review of the nursing home regulatory regime. In March 2022, Government approval was granted to draft a General Scheme for a Bill to provide interim enhancements to the regulatory framework in relation to compliance mechanisms and data collection. A wider review of the nursing home regulatory model will commence in the second half of 2022 which will be informed by an international evidence review and stakeholder consultation.

My Department is also examining complaints processes across the nursing home sector, and in tandem with this work, the Patient Advocacy Service (PAS), which currently supports residents in HSE-operated nursing homes to make complaints, will begin its rollout to private nursing homes at the end of 2022.

More broadly, the Taoiseach has indicated that a comprehensive evaluation of how the country managed COVID-19 will be undertaken which will provide an opportunity to learn lessons from our experiences in dealing with a pandemic over the past 2 years. This will help ensure that we are in a better, stronger position if another pandemic or another similar type of emergency arrives. Consideration is being given as to what the best model for this evaluation will be.