Results 21-40 of 8,053 for speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pharmacy Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I agree completely with the Deputy, and I thank her for that. While I do not have an update for her today - it was yesterday we discussed it - I have instructed my officials to see what can be done, and I will revert to her on it. I have to say Deputy Moynihan has got me. I do not know, and I am going to have to find out. I can tell him about estradot patches and so many different...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: On 19 June, CHI advised the Joint Committee on Health that neither Temple Street nor Crumlin hospitals accepted the Dickson report when it was completed in 2017. My Department received a copy of the report on Friday, 20 June and my officials are reviewing it. I will be seeking assurance from CHI that the matters raised in the report have been addressed. In light of concerns raised in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: General Practitioner Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: What we are talking about is the continued need to expand GP services, as we have pushed more and more services into the community and that is where we want services, such as the chronic disease management programme we discussed, to be delivered. It is the case that the number of GPs is increasing, albeit at different rates in different regions, but we have a particular challenge in rural...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: General Practitioner Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I agree on the delivery of primary care centres. It is difficult for me to speak in general terms about GPs or other medical staff leaving because there will always be a case of someone who has done that. It is not the general trend of what we are seeing. There is clearly work here. There is the opportunity to set up a business and work in one's own practice. There is the opportunity to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Equipment (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The Government is fully committed to the ongoing development of regional hospitals, including Cavan and Monaghan which operate as a single hospital entity, with integrated managerial and clinical governance systems, care pathways and support functions. Since July 2020, significant resources have been invested to meet the needs of patients using Cavan and Monaghan hospitals. The total budget...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Equipment (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Waiting times at Cavan Monaghan are improving a lot. Some 35% of outpatient appointments occurred within Sláintecare wait times compared with 25% in the same period last year, which is an improvement that needs to continue. Some 58% of inpatient day cases occur within the Sláintecare wait times, as do 95% of GI scopes, which is an improvement on 87% last year, and 94% to 100% of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Equipment (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I am sure the Deputy has discussed this in detail with the management group already. I wonder what response he got directly. As I said, staffing at-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Equipment (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Deputy Carthy is the local representative in Monaghan so I assume he has discussed this in detail with hospital management.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Equipment (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: If the Deputy would like me to answer, I will do so. The reality is that staffing has increased in Cavan Monaghan General Hospital by 26% but the increase in Monaghan has been 70%, so Monaghan is not being left behind. I look forward to going there and discussing all these issues, including the business cases submitted or not submitted by Monaghan hospital, as I am sure the Deputy already has.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I can update the Deputy on the orthodontic waiting lists. As of April 2025, the HSE employs 14 consultant orthodontists and 36 specialist orthodontists nationally. There are almost 35 oral healthcare vacancies at the moment which the HSE is working to fill, including three specialist orthodontist whole-time equivalents, and a further 2.22 dental nurse whole-time equivalents. There are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I totally recognise that and I commit today to writing to the Deputy with a full answer on these points. However, as regards the waiting list initiative, there is €8.4 million for this year, provided on an ongoing basis this year to address the primary care waiting lists for children, including in orthodontics. The funding is ongoing rather than one-off and is provided to try to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: General Practitioner Services (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: General practice plays a vital role in our health service but we need more GPs to improve access to services in some areas. To meet that need, the programme for Government has committed to increasing the number of practising GPs through a combination of increased training places and international recruitment. In part, to attract doctors to practice as GPs here, the Government has...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Procedures (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: My practice, as much as I possibly can, is to meet people. Like Deputy Clarke, I have met parents and seen the distress. I have parents in my constituency in this situation. There is no difference between our experiences of this. I cannot believe the distress being experienced by the parents of the 71 children. We are already identifying children. Parents are being told through this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Procedures (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I do not know the exact details of the Deputy's constituent's case but for any child now indicated for surgery, the assessment is done in a very different way from how it happened before. Any such assessment is done by a multidisciplinary team, including a doctor. It is a cross-site piece of work including a physiotherapist assessment. It is not, as had been the case, that an individual...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disease Management (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The GP chronic disease management programme commenced in 2020 and has been rolled out on a phased basis over four years to adults with either a medical card or, for GMS patients, a GP visit card. The aim of the programme is to prevent and manage chronic diseases. Since 2020, over 680,000 patients have been registered on the programme, including those who have exited the programme. Some 91%...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disease Management (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: That is right. It impacts early detection as well. As populations age - which ours is doing - the prevalence of chronic conditions, including multimorbidity, rises. Early protection through the chronic disease management programme prevents the need for more intensive hospital-based treatments. Since 2020, 51% of the new chronic disease diagnoses have been made through elements of this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Regulatory Bodies (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: It is exceptionally important to acknowledge that our focus here is on HIQA, but HIQA did not do and did not enable what happened in the nursing homes. I want to take a moment to reflect on the fact that the provider and the individuals involved are ultimately responsible. We will also work with HIQA but let us first and foremost direct our ire at the providers of the nursing homes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medicinal Products (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I recognise the importance of timely access for patients to medicines, including new medicines. Supported by €128 million of funding, in the past four years the State has delivered access to 194 new medicines. Of these, 74 were for cancer and 49 were for rare diseases. Budget 2025 allocated €30 million for new medicines, to come from efficiencies to be identified by the HSE....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medicinal Products (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I want to put a little bit of context on this. The State spent more than €3 billion in 2023 providing medicines to patients. We sometimes forget that €3 billion of the health spend goes to providing medicines. That is appropriate but it is a major budgetary consideration as well. With the early access programmes, we have to get the balance right between being able to get...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medicinal Products (26 Jun 2025)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I will do so, Deputy.