Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Select Committee on Health

Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary)

9:00 am

Photo of Jim DalyJim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He has raised the matter in the Dáil. Telehealth is a very interesting debate. In essence, telehealth does not require a whole lot of additional regulation. Telehealth is just a platform. It is not a new way of doing medicine. It is a screen-to-screen communication tool. At the other end of the screen is a fully regulated doctor or consultant. I refer to the example in my area of consultant psychiatry. I want to deliver consultant psychiatry from a hub in Dublin, or it could be Cork, Limerick or anywhere else, whereby there would be one room with a consultant psychiatrist inside, and instead of having to be physically present in the Limerick, Cork, Tralee or Clonmel ED or any other hospital ED, whether in Naas General Hospital or wherever else, he could cover five or six of these sites from the one hub. What one needs is technology at both ends in order that when my 14 year old son presents at an accident and emergency unit in a state of psychosis at 2 a.m., instead of telling us no consultant psychiatrist is available until 9 a.m., they will turn on a screen in front of him and there will be a consultant psychiatrist who will speak to my son and can assess him, diagnose him, prescribe medication and, if necessary, admit him to an adolescent unit.

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