Results 23,281-23,300 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospital Staff (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: The process of recruiting consultants continues unaffected by the moratorium. The process includes suppressing two non-consultant posts for one consultant post and is working well, as is evident from the ratios. The first report on this matter was the 1994 Tierney report which was to get us there ten years later. We have made good progress since 2003. The HSE, the Medical Council and...

Hospital Staff (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: Services to patients will not be curtailed and are constantly being reconfigured. There will be a question later on Navan Hospital and I shall deal with the matter then in line with recommendations on patient safety and so on. Regarding interns, the issue is to have a comparative figure that compares like for like, comparing our position when the manpower study reported with where we are...

Hospitals Building Programme (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: The renewed programme for Government reaffirms the Government's commitment to the hospital co-location programme. Preferred bidders have been selected for six co-location projects, including those at Beaumont, Cork University, Limerick Regional and St. James's hospitals. The Beacon Medical Group was awarded the Beaumont, Cork and Limerick projects. Synchrony Healthcare was successful in...

Hospitals Building Programme (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: That may be correct in regard to stand-alone private facilities but the reality is that almost 50% of elective admissions, including those in the Deputy's local hospital, are for private patients. The impetus behind this plan came from a letter from six consultants in the Deputy's hospital who were the first people to write to me on this idea.

Hospitals Building Programme (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: Hold on. They are highly respected and I believe the Deputy, too, would respect them. The reason they proposed this was to free up the private beds which are designated in our public hospitals for public patients. That remains the plan. The sad reality is that we do not have additional resources to invest in our public hospital programme, regardless of whether I or anyone else is in...

Hospitals Building Programme (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: -----of providing additional capacity because too many public beds are consumed by private patients who could be dealt with in private sector facilities. These facilities must be made available to all patients of the hospital and profit may arise - in the case of the hospital in Limerick about 25%. There can be no breach of the tender or of the project agreement entered into with any of the...

Hospitals Building Programme (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: In Waterford Regional Hospital there are 80 private beds paid for by taxpayers which are accessible only to private patients. I do not have the figure for Limerick but it is similar. A large proportion of private beds in our public hospitals are paid for by taxpayers, as are the staff concerned, but these are available to one group of patients only. I do not find that acceptable. Not all...

Hospitals Building Programme (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: Those tax breaks, too, will only be available to certain people. If the tax system can deliver in health or any other area a benefit for our citizens that is greater than the benefit which can be achieved otherwise, we must have an open mind about it.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: In its role as patient advocate for high quality, safe, surgical care and practice, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland supported the decision of the HSE's director of quality and clinical control, Dr. White, to cease emergency acute surgical services at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan with effect from 1 September. Earlier this year, the HSE north east identified two general surgery cases...

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: The question relates to emergencies. There are six cases involved and one surgeon was put on temporary leave while being subject to investigation. As to emergency surgery there was one such procedure in every 24 hours and the decision was made to move that to a safe environment. There are reviews pending which involve the Royal College of Surgeons. Regarding elective surgery, financial...

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: I believe that at the very minimum he would expect units of the HSE in every part of the country to live within the budgets allocated for the year.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: To cite the advice of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in regard to this matter, it is to the effect that we cease all emergency surgery, all emergency surgery admissions, examine patients in the emergency department and transfer any patient needing a surgical admission - this accounts for four admissions a day, approximately two of which would require a surgical procedure - and so on.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: It was on the basis of that advice and the number of reports that have been conducted into these procedures, that the decision was made. With regard to elective procedures there and elsewhere, hospitals have to live within the budgets allocated to them, and that includes Navan Hospital.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: I believe I have dealt with the issue. The Deputy is raising two separate issues. One is the matter of safety and the transfer of acute surgery from Navan to Drogheda hospitals.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: I am delighted to hear the Deputy does, since he opposed it when it was announced.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: I do not want to provoke the Deputy but was not cancelled in August when he was speaking on this matter, because I have some of his quotes here.

Hospital Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: Navan hospital in the north-east, Galway University Hospital and every other hospital and region in the country have to live with the budget allocation for health services for 2010. It constitutes 12% of national income, which is very high by comparison with other countries. I do not have additional money and neither does the Exchequer to allocate to any hospital that falls short in its...

Health Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: The HSE has not issued a national directive to dentists working in the public dental service that they are not to fill cavities in children's teeth. The Deputy may be referring to a clinical policy in Sligo-Leitrim for the past 15 years not to fill milk teeth unless there was clear evidence of an associated health benefit. In response to media reports in August, the principal dental surgeon...

Health Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: This is not a directive or policy of the HSE but a policy that has been pursued for the past 15 years by Dr. Joe Mullen, the principal dental surgeon for Sligo-Leitrim. I will not dispute what he believes is best practice because I am not a dentist, and I understand the Deputy is not either.

Health Services (5 Oct 2010)

Mary Harney: With regard to evidence from research, a project is under way in the UK to examine the benefits of providing baby tooth fillings and also to examine other methods of restoration and assess the best outcomes. I understand the results will not be available for at least five years.