Community Healthcare Networks – in focus

THE LONG-TERM PLAN FOR COMMUNITY CARE

Rolling out the Enhanced Community Care programme provides a realistic model to support older people and people with chronic conditions in their own home and community

For many years people have talked about our need to reduce our over-dependence on the acute hospital system by investing in community based services.

In recognition of this, an unprecedented budget of €150 million is supporting the rollout of a new service model in 2021. This new model is about enhancing community care and enabling older people and people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, respiratory illness and cardiac illnesses to stay at home with more options, better support and more joined up care.

“What we are trying to achieve with the enhanced community care (ECC) model is to re-orientate our delivery of services from acute hospitals to the community. It’s about delivering care in a person’s home or their community, avoiding hospital admissions and improving outcomes for people as they age. Ultimately, we are making it easier for people to access services and to have them delivered locally,” said Pat Healy, National Director for Community Strategy and Planning.

“The ECC model will allow improved access to diagnostics in the community for GPs and the continued implementation of alternative pathways, including GP-led chronic disease management and community specialist teams for older people.”

Recruitment

Significant progress is being made to establish 96 Community Healthcare Networks and 32 community specialist teams for older people and people living with chronic disease / lifelong conditions by the end of the year. In the future, community health services will be delivered through these Community Healthcare Networks. As we work to set up these networks and teams, we are recruiting over 3,000 new frontline staff across a range of disciplines including nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals.

Challenges

Speaking about the challenges thrown up by COVID-19 and the recent cyber security incident, Pat said, “There are a range of people involved in the ECC programme right across the country and what I am seeing all the time is innovation, creativity and a willingness to overcome the challenges of the day. I would like to commend our staff for their continued hard work and dedication.

“While we will continue to grapple with the impact of COVID-19 and the cyber attack for some time, the ECC programme provide us with a real opportunity to work together to find solutions that make a real difference to people living in Ireland.”