Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

2895. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the programme for Government commitment to examine the introduction of free pelvic floor physical therapy sessions for women after childbirth; the work undertaken by her Department to date; the timeline she is working towards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42579/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This Government is committed to further transforming women’s healthcare. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to examine the introduction of free pelvic floor physical therapy sessions for women after childbirth.

The first Women’s Health Action Plan was published by the then Minister for Health in March 2022, presenting a vision for the future of women’s health in Ireland. The current Women’s Health Action Plan 2024-5 identifies a number of actions relating to the provision of antenatal and gynaecological care, including delivering additional “see and treat” Ambulatory Gynaecology Clinics and expanding the national network of Postnatal Hubs.

Funding has been provided to expand the existing Pelvic Floor Services in St Michael’s Hospital, Dun Laoghaire - Ireland’s first multidisciplinary clinic for the assessment and management of pelvic floor dysfunction. €274,855 was provided under the Women’s Health Action Plan 2022-2023 to provide 4.0 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff to enable the expansion and development of the Pelvic Floor Health Service. Once-off funding of €250,000 also contributed to this upgrade and refurbishment.

As part of the Ambulatory Gynaecology Model of Care, a Framework for the implementation of physiotherapy-led gynaecology care pathways has also been developed.

This physiotherapy-led care pathway enables women to be both directly triaged to clinical specialist physiotherapy for direct management as clinically appropriate or triaged directly for management by the medical team with input and support from the clinical specialist physiotherapy service. Over 780 women were seen and managed through the physiotherapy-led care pathway in 2024.

Women identified the improvement of postnatal care as a priority in the National Maternity Experience Survey, first run in 2020. The development of community maternity services, including Postnatal Hubs, is helping to address this need, with the provision of physiotherapy services a key consideration.

Significant investment has been directed into piloting and establishing a national network of Postnatal Hubs that provide essential care for women in the community, including physiotherapy, in the weeks after birth. Five Postnatal Hubs were open in Cork, Kerry, Portiuncula, Sligo and Carlow-Kilkenny by the end of 2023. Four further Hub networks are in development in 2025, at the three Dublin maternity hospitals and Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda. Four further Postnatal Hubs have also been funded and are in development, which will bring the national network to 13 out of 19 maternity units/hospitals.

The Department is working with the HSE to assess further expansion and provision of free postnatal physiotherapy.