Results 6,061-6,080 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I do not believe it is a good idea. Instead of wearing ideological blinkers, the Deputy should consider solutions.

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: She should take off her ideological blinkers at least once in a lifetime.

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: What I say is true. The Deputy believes my proposal is stupid although it involves providing the beds at half the cost that would be incurred in the traditional way.

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: The function of regional health fora is clearly set out in section 42 of the Health Act 2004, which provides for the establishment of the fora to make representations to the Health Service Executive as they consider appropriate on the range and operation of health and personal social services provided within their functional areas. I understand the first meeting of the forum for the north...

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: The fora are free to discuss policy issues. However, the fora are prohibited from having a role when it comes to clinical judgment issues and the appointment of staff. This issue falls into the broad area of policy, on the one hand, and patient safety and clinical judgment on the other hand. This is why it was decided this service should not be supplied in four different hospitals covering a...

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: Obviously, anybody who is critically ill may be brought to a hospital with an accident and emergency unit that is on call for emergencies. Clearly for all patients, the sooner they are brought to the most appropriate place for treatment the better. The sooner a patient can get to the place that can deal with his or her difficulty, the better the outcome. If a patient is brought to a hospital...

Hospital Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: A review of what happened to the late Pat Joe Walsh in Monaghan General Hospital is expected to be complete next month. The review of services in the region will also be available in May. As a matter of urgency we need greater clarity as to what should happen in the north east because there have been major difficulties. For almost as long as I have been a Member of this House, the hospital...

Departmental Strategy Statements. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: The Government is fully committed to the implementation of the principles contained in the primary care strategy and this includes the development of primary care teams and networks. The implementation process at operational level is a function of the HSE, whose chief executive officer has identified as a priority the development of multidisciplinary primary care teams. The 2006 Estimate for...

Departmental Strategy Statements. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I will tell the Deputy what we are doing. This year current expenditure on health care will be €12 billion, €7 billion of which will be on primary continuing community care. Of the €7 billion, primary care and community health services get approximately €3.2 billion, which is a considerable amount of money. We are trying to strengthen the personnel and expertise available to general...

Departmental Strategy Statements. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: We need to ensure we do not limit the number of people who can access general medical service contracts, which is something we have done. I regularly meet doctors who would love to have general medical service practices, but are prohibited from doing so under the current rules which were agreed with the IMO. I met two such doctors last week. We have to use our existing capacity as best we...

Accident and Emergency Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: The Government's top health service priority is to tackle the difficulties with accident and emergency services. I said I wanted the accident and emergency situation to be treated as an emergency to increase the pace with which better outcomes are achieved for patients. The Government's objectives are to reduce the number of people waiting for admission, the amount of time they spend waiting...

Accident and Emergency Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I remind Deputy Gormley that the conversion of 1,000 private beds into public beds is not privatisation. He does not seem to understand what is privatisation. It would be privatisation if I was doing the reverse, by converting some public beds to private beds.

Accident and Emergency Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I wish to make that clear.

Accident and Emergency Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: There are 2,500 private beds in our public hospitals at present. That some 46% of the elective work at Tallaght Hospital last year involved private patients does not cast any reflection on its catchment area or on its accident and emergency activities. The beds in question were entirely funded and are 40% subsidised by the taxpayer. The wages of the nursing and other staff are paid by the...

Accident and Emergency Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I said that earlier but the Deputy was not listening.

Accident and Emergency Services. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: Such targets are in place in the best health care systems in the world. Under our system, before a patient even gets to see a doctor, he or she can have to wait quite some time. Many of the processes within accident and emergency departments can, I hope, expedite the time period before a patient gets to see a doctor. Remember that 75% of those presenting at accident and emergency departments...

Cancer Screening Programme. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, commenced in 2000 with the programme covering the former Eastern, North Eastern and Midland Health Board regions. In 2003 the extension of the programme to counties Carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford and its national expansion to the rest of the country was announced. Screening commenced in Wexford in March 2004, in Carlow in April 2005 and in...

Cancer Screening Programme. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I have looked at population screening as regards another area in which I am interested in pursuing when we can. Any population screening is always done on a gradual basis for a host of reasons. One cannot move from a situation where there is no population screening for a particular type of cancer to one where the entire population is covered in a short period of time. That is not to say that...

Cancer Screening Programme. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: That is right.

Cancer Screening Programme. (26 Apr 2006)

Mary Harney: I assure the Deputy it is my intention and that of the Government to have it rolled out as well. That is why provision has been made by way of resources for that to happen and why we have gone to tender for procurement of a contractor to build the facility. However, it is not just about a building. It is also a question of highly qualified staff such as a radiologist, specially trained nurses...