Wexford to get community intervention team

THE setting up of a Community Intervention Team in County Wexford is expected by the end of the year, to give specialist care to patients who need help across a range of settings.

Commenting on the news to this newspaper Minister James Browne TD, said it’s expected the team will be set up within the next couple of months.

‘Community Intervention Teams are specialist healthcare teams that provide urgent care to patients who need help in their home, in nursing homes, or elsewhere in the community,’ said Min Browne.

‘I am pleased to see progress is being made on my repeated representations to deliver Community Intervention Teams for our county,’ he added.

According to Min Browne plans are underway to have the team operational in the county by the end of March.

‘ This team will work out of Wexford Primary Care Centre and also from another location in the north of the county,’ said

Min Browne.

Community Intervention Teams ensure people who need specialist medical follow-up treatment can have it in their home, residential setting, or other locations in our community,’ he added.

Min Browne went on to comment that the team will allow for ‘short hospital stays, create more space in our hospitals, and allows people to recover in the more comfortable familiar surroundings of their residence’.

Complimenting local and national doctors, nurses and healthcare staff for providing ‘world class healthcare in the most challenging of circumstances’, Min Browne noted that January has seen some of the highest inpatient numbers on hospitals due to Covid-19.

‘I believe once up and running the new Community Intervention Teams will aide our frontline healthcare workers in hospitals by reducing the time spent as an inpatient by those who can be treated in the community,’ he said.