Results 10,781-10,800 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I recently signed an order establishing the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board on a statutory basis. The development board held its inaugural meeting last Monday. The principal functions of the board will be to plan, design, build, furnish and equip the new National Paediatric Hospital in accordance with a brief to be approved by the Health Service Executive. The brief will set...

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: The board's remit is to put the new hospital in place to have it operational in 2012. I was happy to hear from the chairman and the board members, whom I met on Monday, that they believe that ambitious deadline can be met. Among the functions of the board is to work on the transfer from the three existing hospitals. No tertiary facilities exist at Tallaght. Those that were there moved to...

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I am well aware of the Deputy's views on myself as they were well publicised in the aftermath of the election. I am, however, delighted to see him back in good health and I say so genuinely. As I understand, the board of the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght and certainly the paediatricians in the hospital generally support the move to a single tertiary hospital for sick children. I...

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I fully accept that not everybody is in favour of the Mater Hospital site. If the impression was created that everybody was happy then it was wrong. Of course they are not, but I do not believe that there is any site in the country to be co-located with an adult hospital that would have met all the requirements. I said that 84% of the children that attend the accident and emergency...

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I got it from my Department and from the HSE.

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: If the Deputy gives me the correct figures, I will be happy. I have quoted that for the last year and it is yet to be contradicted. It may have increased in the last few weeks, but I am referring to the period 2003-06.

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I have spoken to many of them and I think the Deputy is aware of that. We are following the advice of what happens in the best children's hospitals in the world. Most of those hospitals are downtown in the centre of the city, co-located with research facilities, adult teaching hospitals and so on. When the consultants were appointed to look at 17 different children's hospitals, they came...

Hospital Services. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I have not been tipped off. It is in the ambulatory care centre. Does the Deputy not want it in Tallaght?

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: The final outturn on Vote expenditure for the Health Service Executive showed a capital saving of €114 million, of which €42 million was used to offset a revenue overspend and a further €47 million was used to offset a shortfall in projected appropriations-in-aid. This left a balance of €25 million to be surrendered to the Exchequer. The Health Service Executive's appropriation...

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I beg your pardon, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I am sorry. I think we dealt with that in Priority Questions.

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I beg the House's pardon, but one of the difficulties in having priority questions is that one ends up reading out the same answer.

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: The answers certainly do not change. It is not like, with a student of mathematics, where the questions might change but the answers do not.

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I apologise. I propose to take Questions Nos. 69, 162 and 169 together. Improving the delivery of accident and emergency services is the Government's top priority in health. Our objectives are to reduce the numbers waiting for admission, the time spent waiting for admission and the turn-around time for those who can be treated in accident and emergency departments and who do not require...

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I welcome the Deputy back to the House. In March 2006, when the number of patients on trolleys awaiting treatment for a number of hours hit 500, I stated that it must be treated by the HSE as if it were a national emergency. In other words, we had to apply a focus as if we had a national emergency. That was the appropriate way to treat the difficulties that had arisen. Everyone, including...

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: The implementation of many recommendations of the task force is already under way. Many concern capacity in various hospitals. These began during the gestation period of the task force report. Overcrowding is something of a jigsaw. We need more consultants on duty in hospitals, more access to diagnostics and more measures taking place at community level. All of these make an impact on...

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: I object to Deputy Reilly's statement that our health system is totally underfunded. I cannot remember the exact words he used. I do not know whether he referred to GDP or GNP. He may be referring to 2005 figures. If one takes the spending in 2007 and compares it on a per capita basis with purchasing power, parity and so on with many other countries, including France, the United Kingdom...

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: That is what I meant. There are two types of unit. I understand Tallaght Hospital has just got an admission lounge and other hospitals are getting acute assessment medical units. I fully agree with Deputy Reilly that we need to have the kind of measures in place which I know he would like from a general practitioner perspective, in particular for the management of chronic illness in the...

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: The Government is providing step-down facilities. It has provided a couple of hundred such beds in recent years. I fully accept——

Hospital Waiting Lists. (27 Jun 2007)

Mary Harney: ——it must provide more and more are being provided. A number of things must be done. Obviously, rehabilitation capacity is also important as many people in the acute system await rehabilitation. This is the reason the building of the new hospital and additional rehabilitation capacity is important. I understand that one of the co-location proposals, from Blanchardstown, may include...