Welcome to our first newsletter of 2021.
I am greatly aware that the beginning of this new year was not how many people would have envisioned it a few months ago. The significant surge in COVID-19 infections, and the subsequent worrying increase in both hospitalisations and admissions to critical care units, has put intense pressure on our health and social care system.
As the State’s regulator we continue to monitor the situation in nursing homes and other residential care facilities, carrying out risk-based inspections where there have been COVID-19 outbreaks, and working alongside the HSE to support providers in these challenging times.
Our Evidence Synthesis Team continues to support the work of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) and the public health response to COVID-19 through regular and timely advice, reviews and evidence summaries. This will remain a large and ongoing focus of our work as the country moves to secure the rollout of vaccinations.
As well as responding to the pandemic, we also continue to look beyond the current situation to drive lasting quality improvements in health and social care services.
This past month, we launched a Fire Safety Handbook to support providers of nursing homes and other regulated residential centres to improve fire safety and protect people using services from the risk of fire.
We have also submitted recommendations to the Minister for Health on the implementation of a national electronic patient summary in Ireland. When implemented, a national electronic patient summary has the potential to give a healthcare professional access to a patient’s health information at the point of care. In line with this, we continue to progress the development of recommendations on health information modelling and a consent model for the collection, use and sharing of health information.
Later this year, the National Care Experience Programme will run the fourth National Inpatient Experience Survey to capture the experience of patients in public acute hospitals and the impact of COVID-19 on their care and support. This information will identify what is working well and what areas need to be improved in hospitals. The Programme is also developing further surveys on maternity bereavement, end-of-life care and the experience of older people in nursing homes.
The LENS project, detailed in this issue, will also allow for an indepth analysis of the 15,000 statutory notifications HIQA receives from social care services every year. This information will provide an overview of notifications at a national level and be accessible for researchers to carry out their own analyses.
As always, we remain committed to working to improve health and social care services for people in Ireland.
Until next time,
Best wishes,
Phelim Quinn