James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ellis for his question. I am glad to have the opportunity to update the House on this matter.

A central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated healthcare, with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services to enable a home first approach. Integral to this is the development of primary care centres and integrated care hubs across the country in our local communities. Significant progress has been made in the delivery of primary care centres, with 175 opened to date and a further nine under construction. Primary care centres offer a tangible example of the investment this Government is making in community-based health infrastructure.

Aligned with Sláintecare objectives, the HSE's enhanced community care programme is securing a lease in Omni Shopping Centre for integrated community specialist teams, CSTs, managing chronic disease and older persons. These CSTs enable the redesign of care pathways, making care more accessible within the community for those with a chronic disease and older persons. The Larkhill primary care team will also be based in this location.

This specialist hub will develop pathways and provide integrated consultant-led healthcare services, aligned to Beaumont Hospital, for people with complex health and social care needs, older persons, and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, adult asthma, cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes. Co-located with these CST services will be local primary care team services. These services, currently provided from Larkhill Health Centre, will also operate from the site and will include public health nursing, community medical service, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology and social work services for the Larkhill primary care team catchment area.

Work on the delivery of the clinical space on the first floor is due to be completed in the final months of this year. When completed, the space will provide an additional 36 clinical spaces, including a cardiac rehab gym, clinical rooms, community diagnostics, podiatry and wound treatment, a primary care gym, and a pulmonary rehab gym. Dental services will continue to be provided from Larkhill Health Centre.

The Minister welcomes the progress made on the development of the integrated care hub at Omni Shopping Centre and the alignment of primary care and community specialist services in a shared clinical space to better enable truly integrated care delivery in our local communities. I hope that is good news for the Deputy. It sounds like a very comprehensive suite of services is about to be provided. I hope that answers the Deputy's queries.