Results 3,981-4,000 of 4,359 for speaker:Gino Kenny

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Healthcare Infrastructure Provision (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. My question relates to the Irish national ICU audit. There was a recent audit on intensive care beds in the State. It pointed out a number of an anomalies and, obviously, deficiencies. There were also positive things in that report on our healthcare system. I wish to hear the Minister’s views on the report.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Healthcare Infrastructure Provision (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I acknowledge there has been significant progress in intensive care beds since Covid-19, which exposed crack lines in medical need. Obviously, there is more demand in our public healthcare system because of population growth and so forth. Obviously, not having ICU beds creates a knock-on effect and a trickle-down effect. If there is full capacity at ICU level, that will have a knock-on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Healthcare Infrastructure Provision (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I accept that. I said from the outset that there has been progress in respect of ICU beds. The report referred to the issue across our health system in retaining staff who are trained here and who may emigrate and so forth. There are mitigating circumstances in this regard such as the work-life balance and staff getting accommodation in built-up areas like Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Healthcare Infrastructure Provision (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: Yes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: 7. To ask the Minister for Health if he is aware that an organisation (details supplied) stated that over 604 patients were treated without a bed in Irish hospitals on the Wednesday after the June bank holiday and that this level of overcrowding, which is now consistent and continuing into the summer, at a time when winter respiratory infections are not circulating, indicates that the system...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: This is the Gino Kenny show at this stage. My next question is about the statement by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation last week on bed capacity. More than 604 patients were being treated without a bed in Irish hospitals last week. That is completely unacceptable and is a continuous thing. We cannot have people without proper provision in our hospitals because that will have a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I accept that there has been progress in this regard. However, especially at bank holiday weekends, there seems to be a spike in the number of people who cannot get a hospital bed. The figure of 404 or whatever the actual figure is, is too many. We have the situation of hospital beds in the Irish public health system, which is a legacy issue. We all agree there needs to be more bed...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Overcrowding (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: The INMO appeared before the health committee two weeks ago and painted a very stark picture regarding capacity. The organisation is calling for thousands of extra beds in the public health system. It laid out where the deficiencies exist in the health system. INMO members are the people on the front line. The representatives focused on the lack of beds in the Irish health system where...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services Staff (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I will be happy to get the Minister's answer on this question so I will skip my 30-second introduction.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services Staff (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I am taking his question as well, just to make things more complicated.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services Staff (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I thank the Minister. In certain areas, there are pressures on staff. Probably one good example is public health nurses in CHO 7. In CHO 7 in Clondalkin and Lucan, there are no public health nurses whatsoever. This is very worrying. I got a response to a parliamentary question on why public health nurses could not be recruited and the reason was that new public health nurses just could...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: 11. To ask the Minister for Health if the review planned by his Department on the medical cannabis access programme has begun; if so, when he expects it to be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25788/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: My question is about the ongoing review of the medical cannabis access programme. As the Minister knows, the Health Research Board did a very extensive review which was published in January. It recommended a number of progressive changes to the medical cannabis access programme, which at the moment is stagnant in terms of patients who can access medical cannabis treatment. I would like to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I had my head in my hands there because the level of despair about the lack of progress on this issue is palpable. Those who have been campaigning on this issue have been frustrated, to say the least. Since the legislation was introduced in 2019 and the medical cannabis access programme, MCAP, was set up, only 50 people have received access to the programme. It is too restrictive. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: -----and some people have to go to the black market, which is bizarre. Some people have to do without. That is just not acceptable when we have a programme that is up and running, but is largely stagnant in getting people access to these particular products.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I think the Minister, personally, is a good supporter of this issue and that he wants to see progress. Who will be on that working group? Is there a timeline for when it will finish its work? In the past, we have seen groups being set up, and it takes forever for them to come back with recommendations. The HRB report does recommend that the programme needs to expand. If it does not, I do...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: -----and that would be a huge shame. Whatever your doubts about medical cannabis may be, it can be a hugely beneficial medical intervention for some people and particularly for some conditions, although not all. Some people will use it for all conditions and that is their business, but there is really good evidence to show that we should expand this programme. If it does not expand, I do...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: Today is the first day of the special Joint Committee on Drugs Use. Paul Reid attended the meeting and I was present. The recommendations from the citizens' assembly are about saving lives, but an article on the front page of yesterday's Irish Examiner stated that the European drugs agency's report found that Ireland has the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe. Shockingly, Ireland has...

Committee on Drugs Use: Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I thank the witnesses for coming in and for their excellent work on the citizens’ assembly. This has been a forthright and healthy debate and one that has needed to happen for some time. We would all agree that we have had six decades of legislation that has not worked. It has criminalised whole swaths of communities and left in its wake a trail of failure. If anybody in this room...

Committee on Drugs Use: Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: I do not think they have the appetite for it, to be honest. The work the assembly has done is excellent. I think there is a mood change in the public and even in the Oireachtas, but I do not sense there is an appetite in certain sections of the Government. They just want the status quo to continue. I hope I am wrong.