PROPERLY FUNDING homecare for children with life-limiting conditions would save the State approximately €70 million a year, a leading health economist has said.
Prof Charles Normand of Trinity College Dublin said an estimated €14.5 million a year would meet the needs of the children so that they could be cared for at home instead of in acute hospitals. Care in hospitals is currently costing about €87 million, he said.
“By the standards of what we spend on health and social services, the amounts of money required to make a start are quite small,” he said.
Prof Normand was speaking outside Leinster House yesterday after making a presentation to more than 40 TDs and Senators on the cost savings involved in providing ringfenced funding for the service. Presentations were also made by children’s charity the Jack and Jill Foundation and by the Irish Hospice Foundation.
At present there is no dedicated funding for home nursing for the 1,400 children who have life- limiting conditions in Ireland.
Jack and Jill and other charities care for some of them. The remainder have needs at very different levels, Prof Normand said.
“Some of these children will be surviving with their families with a lot of pressure on them. Some of them will be in the acute hospital system. In most cases they need to go in and out to get treatment and support, but in general that is not where they should be living their lives,” he said.
Some 350 children die in Ireland every year and only 11 per cent die at home.
Jonathan Irwin, chief executive of Jack and Jill, said the majority of parents wanted to care for their child at home, but ad-hoc funding and inconsistent practices between regions made it difficult.
John O’Leary, former Dublin footballer, spoke about the service provided to his family and his 18-month-old son Tom by home nursing from Jack and Jill.
