Results 23,901-23,920 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospitals Building Programme (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: It is engaging with An Bord Pleanála and expects to be in a position, subject to it approving it as a strategic infrastructure project, to apply for planning permission in the first or second month of next year.

Hospitals Building Programme (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: If it is a strategic infrastructure project the purpose of the legislation was to reduce the timeframe for getting planning permission. The idea is that the construction of the project would begin at the end of next year.

Hospitals Building Programme (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: Yes, and I have been strongly advised that consultants' private rooms and so on will also be involved. It is realistic. I remember answering questions in this House a year ago about whether the funding arrangement we put in place for the cystic fibrosis unit in St. Vincent's Hospital was realistic; of course it was and it was bankable. Manchester spent 40 years bickering about a site. It...

Hospital Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: Since 2005 there has been a 34% increase in the numbers of consultant radiologists, from 183 to 245. Ireland now has a ratio of one consultant radiologist per 17,959 of population, which is similar to the UK at one per 18,040 of population. There are currently 5.54 adult consultant radiologists and two paediatric consultant radiologists at Tallaght Hospital. An additional two locum...

Hospital Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: As Deputy Reilly has acknowledged, the report draws a number of conclusions. First, on the formation and governance of the hospital, there are lessons we need to learn when we are bringing hospitals together. The Tallaght model is not the way to do it. While I understand it happened in the way it did for ethos and other reasons at the time, the hospital, from a board structure, remained an...

Hospital Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: Tallaght hospital has had six CEOs since it was formed. I knew the first CEO, who came from Canada, well. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle was a Minister for Health during some of his tenure. He was a highly impressive individual but for some reason he did not stay very long. I think there is a lesson to be learned from the fact that there has been such a rapid turnover of CEOs; six in ten years...

Hospital Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: The national audit is very close to completion and it is intended that Dr. White will publish its outcome very soon, I believe before Christmas.

Health Services Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: I announced last week that the Government had decided to fund a special voluntary early retirement and severance package in the health sector. The scheme is aimed at management and administrative staff and support grades. There is general acceptance of the need to reduce the numbers of management and administrative staff in the health service and I have referred to this on many occasions....

Health Services Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: To be fair, when people talk about the Department they need to realise they are speaking about organisations such as the Adoption Board, which has 29 employees. They are not all in Hawkins House. While I accept issues were raised around the organisation and management in the Department and perspectives of staff, I believe that the management team in the Department is implementing the change...

Health Services Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: They are part of the staff in the Department. That is the point I was making.

Health Services Staff (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: No, I am simply stating that my Department has reduced its staff by approximately 25%. The Deputy may know, because the Department is dealing with him on his Private Members' Bill, that a very small number of people are in each division of responsibility. This plan is not open to the Civil Service; it is open only to the HSE. The incentivised early retirement scheme is open to public...

General Practitioner Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: I strongly support the view that access to General Medical Services, GMS, contracts should be opened up to all qualified and vocationally trained GPs who meet general suitability criteria. The Irish Medical Organisation, the HSE and my Department are parties to the terms of the GMS contract. A consultation group representing all parties to the contract have been reviewing the provisions...

General Practitioner Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: I agree with the Deputy's point about the marking system. Changes in that marking system are at an advanced stage in order that preference is not given to the individuals as she suggested, and that is only fair. I have been informed there could be 400 or 500 GPs. The data suggest it is probably close to 500. There are a total of 2,600 GPs in active practice, 300 doctors are working in a...

General Practitioner Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: I welcome the Deputy's comments regarding opening up the GMS scheme to all GPs. He is correct that there is a shortage of GPs. We have increased the number of training places this year from 120 to 157. We have also greatly increased the number of medical students. The big challenge will be to keep those students of medicine in Ireland or in medicine anywhere because a fair number of...

General Practitioner Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: The change must be made in the first instance. Anyone who is qualified should have access to a GMS contract if they have the necessary qualifications and vocational training. If this is the case there should be no barrier. It is in the interests of the HSE to provide supports for GPs based on volume of patients. It would not be acceptable for a small practice to be given the same level of...

Hospital Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: The most recent information on bed closures in the acute hospital system is for the week ending 7 November. At that point 892 inpatient beds and 19 day beds were closed for reasons of infection control, refurbishment or cost containment. This is from a complement of approximately 11,800 inpatient beds and 1,800 day beds in the public hospital system. Access to appropriate care for patients...

Hospital Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: Over the past several years we have increasingly relied on day case activity rather than inpatient accommodation as a way of providing treatment. Last year, the HSE devised a basket of 24 procedures with the British Association of Day Surgery and set targets for hospitals to increase day activity on these procedures from 62% to 75%. There are huge variations in performance across the...

Hospital Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: I accept what the Deputy said about the shortage of rehabilitation facilities. Acute rehabilitation could be provided in a more localised environment and an enormous amount of work has been done on requirements at both national and local levels. Fantastic rehabilitation facilities have been developed in the mid-west for stroke and other patients in order to bring them home and get them...

Hospital Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: The Deputy is correct that the reductions in health spending next year will be a minimum of €600 million but, as the Government has not finalised the four year plan or the Estimates for next year, I am not in a position to confirm the exact figure. When I know the figure, I will sit down with the HSE to work out how the budgetary parameters can be implemented. I do not pretend it will be...

Hospital Services (11 Nov 2010)

Mary Harney: Cork University Hospital is at the higher end because of the acuity and complexity of the work carried out there relative to other hospitals. I set out the average costs but they vary depending on staff levels and other factors. We have been making advances on an agreed policy approach for the country as a whole. Heretofore the approach was to send everybody to a single national...