Robinson calls for expansion of ‘absolutely wonderful’ Hospital at Home service after close relative suffers flu
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00:00You know, I had a couple of family members, very close relatives, who picked up that respiratory
00:07virus that's doing the rounds at the minute, and two of them were very, very unwell.
00:13And one of them, both of them were in the Western Trust, one of them received the hospital
00:17at home care.
00:18And I have to say, it was absolutely wonderful.
00:22Two nurses, one in the morning, one at night, and it is still, those nurses are still attending
00:30to that relative.
00:31And that has kept that relative of mine out of hospital.
00:36It has broken one element of the flu chain.
00:40And I'm a little bit disappointed that, you know, you're telling us that there is no ability
00:47or no capacity to ramp or expand that service, given that, you know, we're being consistently
00:53told that how there are so many people who are receiving undignified care.
01:01There are people, you know, there is so much constraints on space within hospitals.
01:07But here is a service that would stop people having undignified care.
01:15It would improve a bit of space and a bit of capacity within hospitals.
01:20You know, and that's why I can't get my head around this, why that can't be expanded, why
01:27that can't be enhanced, and why examples that I've given you today, that we could see more
01:32examples of people who otherwise potentially would have been in hospital, that were not
01:36in hospital, and they're prepared for a home on their own.
01:39And we're very happy to be so, because I am convinced that that relative, had they not
01:43received that hospital at home care, they would have been in hospital, and they already
01:49had underlying issues, you know, and they were very fearful of the potential of going
01:55into hospital as well.
01:57So not only psychologically, they were helped.
02:00Physically, they were helped as well.
02:02And I have to say I'm very, very grateful to the Western Trust and the GP service in
02:07the Lomavada area that provided that service.
02:10And I am convinced that potentially, potentially could have saved that person's life.
02:17Well, if you want to expand that workforce, and I would love to, you need the money to
02:22do it.
02:24And the money doesn't exist.
02:26I will continue during the entire course of my tenure as Minister of Health to try and
02:32find that from within existing budgets and existing resources.
02:36But as I said earlier, I mean, Jennifer and colleagues have done amazing work in terms
02:41of over £200 million worth of savings.
02:44Now, those weren't £200 million worth of savings so that we could expand services.
02:49That was so that we could contract services to live within budget.
02:54And I have to say, you know, if you voted for the budget, which I warned and Robin Swan
03:00warned was entirely inadequate in terms of healthcare provision, then there are consequences
03:05to that, and you've justified one of those consequences.