Results 11,521-11,540 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney
- Written Answers — Ambulance Service: Ambulance Service (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 104, 137 and 142 together. Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services is a matter for the Health Service Executive and funding for all health services has been provided as part of its overall Vote. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular issues raised by the Deputies....
- Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The current recruitment pause is a temporary measure initiated as part of the HSE financial break-even plan and will be reviewed at the end of October 2007. The HSE recognises that there are some critical or exceptional circumstances where appointment of staff may be necessary in frontline services. Accordingly a process has been put in place to evaluate, monitor and approve requests for...
- Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: It is my objective and that of the Health Service Executive (HSE) to see the earliest delivery of the Government's National Plan for Radiation Oncology. The HSE will shortly appoint a National Director of Radiation Oncology to report to the National Cancer Control Director. My Department and the HSE have been working closely on the examination of procurement options in order to expedite the...
- Written Answers — Hospital Waiting Lists: Hospital Waiting Lists (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: I am aware of the findings of the Euro Health Consumer Index Report. A small section of the report deals with waiting times for operations for public patients within the Irish public hospital system. This is one indicator out of twenty-seven in the report and one of five used by the authors to reach their conclusions on the overall "waiting time" experience of Irish patients. The National...
- Written Answers — National Treatment Purchase Fund: National Treatment Purchase Fund (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: As the Deputy's question relates to the operation of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, my Department has asked the Chief Executive of the Fund to reply directly to the Deputy in relation to the information requested.
- Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The Health Service employs almost 130,000 personnel and this equates to 111,570 wholetime equivalents at end June 2007. Since the establishment of the HSE, the number of Medical and Dental personnel has increased by 13.02% (913). This includes an increase of 306 (+16.34%) in the number of Hospital Consultants. The number of nursing personnel has increased by 4,296 (+12.52%) to 38,609 (or...
- Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The Deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.
- Written Answers — Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme: Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: I have been informed by the HSE that based on most recent estimates, â¬160m will be required to meet costs arising under the Health Repayment Scheme in 2007. Full provision has and will continue to be made to meet the cost of all valid claims arising under the scheme.
- Written Answers — Control of Infectious Diseases: Control of Infectious Diseases (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: I take it the question relates to a possible human flu pandemic. For the sake of clarity, avian flu is primarily a disease of birds. To date, there have been a small number of human cases of infection with the avian flu (H5N1) virus in situations where there has been very close contact with infected birds. There is no evidence of efficient human to human transmission. I would like to draw...
- Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The National Implementation Body plays a fundamental role in supporting the National Partnership process and has my full support. I understand that following the statement by the NIB on the HSE financial break even plan, further engagement has taken place between the HSE and the unions on this matter. I think it is important to note that the NIB did not make any adjudication in respect of...
- Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: I met with Professor Drumm, Accounting Officer of the HSE, recently to discuss the progress of the Service Plan for 2007 and the associated spending, both non-capital and capital. Excluding the Long Stay Repayment Scheme the HSE non-capital or current expenditure outturn, in vote spending terms, for the period to end September is some â¬284m ahead of profile. The Accounting Officer has...
- Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: Quality standards for symptomatic breast disease services have already been developed by a group established by the Minister and were subsequently endorsed by the Board of the Health Information and Quality Authority. The Authority will be monitoring compliance with these standards by the Health Services Executive. HIQA has also invited all public and private hospitals to participate in a...
- Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: My Department has been advised by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) that waiting times for the most common surgical procedures now range from 2 to 5 months compared to 2 to 5 years before the advent of the NTPF in 2002. According to the most recently published (July 2007) data from the Patient Treatment Register operated by the NTPF, 19 of the 20 most common adult procedures have...
- Written Answers — Control of Infectious Diseases: Control of Infectious Diseases (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: MRSA is not a notifiable disease. However, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre of the HSE collects data on MRSA. The data is collected on the first episode of bloodstream infection of MRSA per patient per quarter. This system shows that there were 445 cases in 2002, 480 cases in 2003, 553 cases in 2004, 592 cases in 2005 and 588 cases in 2006. Figures for the first six months of...
- Written Answers — Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme: Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The Health Service Executive (HSE) has responsibility for administering the health repayment scheme in conjunction with the appointed scheme administrator KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald. The HSE has informed my Department that since the commencement of the scheme over 30,000 claims have been received and to date over 3,500 payments totalling over â¬71.5m have issued while over 6,250 offers of...
- Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The current recruitment pause is a temporary measure initiated as part of the HSE financial break-even plan. It will be reviewed at the end of October 2007. Notwithstanding this, it has been recognised that there are some critical or exceptional circumstances where appointment of staff may be necessary in frontline services. Accordingly, a process has been put in place to evaluate, monitor...
- Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The transfer of services from St. Luke's Hospital to new facilities at St. James's Hospital is not due to take place for a number of years. In the meantime, two additional linear accelerators will be commissioned at St. Luke's in early 2008 and two replacement linear accelerators will be commissioned later in 2008. These will provide much needed interim capacity pending the roll out of the...
- Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 139 and 141 together. I have frequent meetings with the Chairman and Chief Executive of the HSE where financial management and service development are discussed. My Department also has ongoing contact with the HSE on a wide range of subjects. There are close to 130,000 people employed in the delivery of our public health and personal social services the vast...
- Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: The latest reports available to me from the HSE, for the period to end August 2007 show that overall the National Hospital Office is some â¬162m in excess of its period budget. The table gives details of the spend of each hospital against its agreed budget. Those hospitals with the highest overspend include Kilcreene Orthopaedic Hospital, Our Lady's Hospital Navan and Portlaoise General...
- Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (17 Oct 2007)
Mary Harney: Expenditure on the General Medical Services Scheme is funded from the Health Service Executive's (HSE) revenue budget. The final out-turn on Vote expenditure for the Health Service Executive, in 2006, shows a capital saving of â¬114m of which â¬42m was used to offset a revenue overspend across the HSE's activities as a whole and a further â¬47m was used to offset a shortfall in...