Carers welcome health policy change of focus

WE in Care Alliance Ireland welcome the recent comments by HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm in relation to acute hospital beds.

He seems to have come around to the idea that the primary focus on health care reform and investment needs to be directed to primary and community care services. This appears preferable to the current obsession with developing more and more acute hospital beds, which cost upwards of 7,000 each week to maintain.

At a national level, the 2001 health care strategy promised several hundred primary care teams with dedicated care managers, a comprehensive system of needs assessment and timely access to a range of additional services.