Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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374. To ask the Minister for Health if he has progressed discussion on the provision of a public inquiry into Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes to examine the nursing homes with high Covid-19 death in order to inform future policy decisions in the sector and provide answers for the many loved ones who lost family members; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49289/22]

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

The position remains that the Department of the Taoiseach are considering what the best model for a comprehensive evaluation of how the country managed COVID-19 will be. This evaluation will provide an opportunity to learn lessons from our experiences in dealing with a pandemic over the past two years. This will help ensure that we are in a better, stronger position if another pandemic or another similar type of emergency arrives.

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. Various examinations and reports with a focus on COVID-19, its impact on nursing homes and the pandemic learnings that can inform future policy, regulation and the model of care for older persons have been undertaken.

In particular, the independent COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel was established in May 2020, 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 and to provide real-time learnings and recommendations to inform the ongoing approach to the management and mitigation of risk to older persons resident in nursing homes as the pandemic evolved. This report 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.

One of the most important things we can take from the experiences of the past two years is our learning and understanding of the challenges facing the nursing home sector. Through engagement with key stakeholders in this sector, including residents, their families and advocacy groups, we are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Nursing Homes Expert Panel and a programme of reform is ongoing across health agencies and stakeholders to ensure an improved quality of service and experience for residents into the future.

Significant progress has already been made in implementing the recommendations of the Expert Panel, particularly those recommendations requiring a priority focus in the response to COVID-19, and work to progress medium and longer term reform recommendations is ongoing. Four Expert Panel Progress Reports have been published, the latest published on 21 June 2022, and all Progress Reports are available on my Department’s website.