Results 11,961-11,980 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Preparedness for Ebola Virus in Ireland: Discussion (16 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I welcome the opportunity to brief the committee this morning on our preparedness for Ebola virus disease, EVD, in Ireland. I am joined by Dr. Tony Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer; Ms Darina O'Flanagan, the director of Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC; Mr. Michael Smith, from the health protection unit of the Department; and Mr. Gavin Maguire from the HSE. In this statement, I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Preparedness for Ebola Virus in Ireland: Discussion (16 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There are a lot of questions. I will not be able to answer them all but I will answer as many as I can and then I will hand over to Dr. Holohan. The task force has met at ministerial level. We met about two weeks ago. At the time we decided not to issue a statement or hold a press conference as we did not want to unnecessarily heighten concern. The task force expects to meet again at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Preparedness for Ebola Virus in Ireland: Discussion (16 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: There was a suspected case yesterday, but not anymore.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Preparedness for Ebola Virus in Ireland: Discussion (16 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Many of these questions are quite sectoral or scientific. I will answer the ones I can and then hand back to Dr. Holohan and Dr. O'Flanagan. Exit screening is in place in the airports of the three most affected countries. Of course it is never possible to be sure that it is 100% up to scratch; that is the nature of these things. So far the only airport in Europe that has decided to carry...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Preparedness for Ebola Virus in Ireland: Discussion (16 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I will respond to the comment made about non-Irish doctors coming here for the changeover in January. We do not have any doctors coming in from west Africa. They need to remain where they are. We have doctors coming here from India, Pakistan, some of the Arab countries and Sudan. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no cases of Ebola in any of those countries. There is no reason...

Topical Issue Debate: Nursing Home Inspections (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who has responsibility for nursing homes. I thank Deputy O'Dowd for raising this matter in the House. The Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is the independent authority established under the Health Act 2007 to drive continuous improvement and to monitor safety and quality in Ireland's health...

Topical Issue Debate: Nursing Home Inspections (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I clarify once again. If it is a public nursing home, complaints can be made to the HSE, using its complaints procedure or subsequently to the Ombudsman if people are not happy with that. For private nursing homes, complaints have to be made through the private nursing home's own complaints procedure or through the appeals procedure if people are not happy with that. If it is elder abuse,...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Letterkenny General Hospital has an average of 98 presentations to its accident and emergency department on a daily basis. I have been advised by the HSE that over a period of several days last week the hospital encountered a spike in demand, where there were more than 120 presentations on each of the three days involved. Coupled with this was the...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Doherty for his comments. I have no doubt the Deputy is sincere in his concerns for Letterkenny General Hospital. We all need to be careful, however, when dealing with health issues, not to do down good hospitals or services in the belief that somehow that will generate more resources because, first, it does not and, second, it undermines public confidence in the health...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Nolan for raising this issue today. Galway University Hospital has approximately 700 beds and is a tertiary referral centre for the western region, as part of the south hospital group. Its emergency department has approximately 66,000 attendances annually. Like many other major emergency departments in the country, it has experienced an increase in activity over recent...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Every Adjournment debate another invitation is forthcoming. As the Deputy is aware, hospitals are only one small part of the health service. There is much more to the health service than acute hospitals, and there are almost 50 of them so if I were to bunk off one day a week and do site visits it would take me a year just to get around them. That is something I intend to do but it will...

Written Answers — Department of Health: National Drugs Strategy Implementation (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As Minister for Health, I have overall responsibility for the implementation of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016. The overall objective of the Strategy is to tackle the harm caused to individuals and society by the misuse of drugs through a concerted focus on the five pillars of supply, reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research. In line with the Programme for...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Expenditure (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As with all capital projects the acute sector infrastructure programme must be considered within the overall capital envelope available to the health service. There will always be more projects than can be funded by the Exchequer. There is limited funding available for new projects over the next multi-annual period 2015-2019 given the level of commitments and the costs to completion already...

Written Answers — Department of Health: An Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland has no role in the awarding or removing of indemnification to nurses or midwives in private practice. This is an employer’s issue and is subject to agreement between the employer and the professional concerned. The NMBI has had no involvement in the recent case. The NMBI is a regulatory body for the nursing and midwifery regulatory profession.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hepatitis C Compensation Payments (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The issues raised by the Deputy relating to financial and administrative matters in regard to the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal have been responded to in replies to Parliamentary Questions: 706 [Ref. 3768/14], 707 [Ref. 3769/14] and 708 [Ref. 3770/14] on 28 January 2014, 238 [Ref.6043/14] on 6 February 2014, 689 [Ref. 7550/14] on 18 February 2014, 632 [Ref. 9714/14] on 25...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Nursing Staff Recruitment (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The scheduling of appointments for patients is a matter for the hospital to which the patient has been referred. Should a patient's general practitioner consider that the patient's condition warrants an earlier appointment, he or she would be in the best position to take the matter up with the consultant and hospital involved. In relation to the specific case raised by the Deputy, as this is...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As this is a service matter, we have asked the HSE to reply directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Staff Remuneration (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As I have no direct role in this matter, I have forwarded your question to the HSE for direct reply.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Cancer Treatment (21 Oct 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The National Cancer Control Programme has set up a Working Group to provide evidence based advice, awareness and support on the prevention of lymphoedema following cancer treatment. It is envisaged that it will provide advice on how to minimise the progression to clinical lymphoedema and on cellulitis risks, recognition and management. This group comprises representatives of both the health...