‘Nationwide’

Ms Eva Beirne, Mens Sheds Co-ordinator welcoming Ministers for Health to Mens Sheds Dundalk for a briefing on cross border health activity

Minister for Health James Reilly and Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Edwin Poots have said there are many health benefits to be gained by working together.

The Ministers were today visiting a number of joint sponsored, cross border projects to see first-hand how sharing health and care services across the two jurisdictions is benefiting people in the areas.

The Ministers also visited the new South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen and the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk.

At the new South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen the Ministers were shown a presentation on the new hospital and the benefits of cross border vascular services. They were also given an update on the new radiotherapy centre at Altnagelvin Hospital and had discussions with diabetes patients benefitting from participation in a CAWT (co-operation and working together) diabetes programme.

The Government is very conscious of the needs of people with a disability who require transport supports from the State. 4,700 people receive a Mobility Allowance and 300 people a year receive a Motorised Transport Grant. The Government is also conscious of the position of the Ombudsman that the schemes are illegal in the context of the Equal Status Acts.
Following detailed consideration of issues surrounding the Mobility Allowance and the Motorised Transport Grant, the Government has today decided that it is no longer possible to allow the two schemes to continue as they presently operate and to devise an alternative scheme for meeting people’s needs.

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Minister Kathleen Lynch and Ms Pamela Kavanagh at a prize-giving ceremony to launch the NIDD Annual Report (2011) published by the Health Research Board.

Ms Kathleen Lynch, TD, Minister of State in the Office of Disability and Mental Health at the Department of Health launched the report at a prize-giving ceremony at the Stewarts Care Ltd campus, Palmerstown.

‘The report continues to point to a changing age profile observed in the data over recent decades, which reflects an increase in the lifespan of people with intellectual disability, which, along with the general demographic trend, has major implications for planning for services designed to meet the needs of older people with intellectual disabilities‘. Read the rest of this entry »