Results 12,221-12,240 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: On ten separate occasions, we were on to the HSE about the review. Last Wednesday during Question Time, although no oral question was going to arise on Portlaoise Hospital, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan tabled a question about the appointment of Professor Keane. I assumed the Deputy would ask a supplementary question, which she did, and I wanted the latest information. I was informed nine cancers...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I did not know the number and the first time I knew——

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Do Deputies want to hear me or not?

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Some of the Members opposite are lawyers — Deputy Shatter is — and they should at least give me a chance to defend myself and put forward the record.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: In any civilised society one can put forward one's case.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: In response to Deputy Burton, as I understand it, Dr. Naughton decided to undertake this review but he informed the HSE locally. It was aware at regional level and I am not trying to say it was not. I was not aware. My Department was not aware, despite being in contact with the HSE on ten different occasions about this matter. Neither the head of the HSE nor the head of the hospitals...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I presume the people in the Deputy's party——

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I am just telling the Deputy what I heard and I was impressed that she was focused on the women because that was my focus.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I wish to deal with Portlaoise. In 1996 a Fine Gael Minister, Deputy Noonan, presided over a cancer strategy which designated Tullamore as the centre of excellence for the midlands. The health board was asked to appoint a regional medical director to oversee the implementation of the strategy and Dr. Donal Hollywood was appointed. In 1998 a meeting of the health board took place at which it...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I have half an hour to reply.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Three different hospitals got a little bit of the action, so when over €7 million was made available——

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: When €7 million was given for the strategy it had absolutely no effect because one cannot divide the kind of specialist service that a region requires between three hospitals.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: That is what happened. I want to address the parties opposite because I have heard a lot about cancer care. On 30 January last the Labour Party and Fine Gael published their blueprint for health, the 'Mullingar accord' with 12 priority points, to great fanfare and so on. Was cancer No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3? No. Was it even No. 12? No. Not even a cursory mention of cancer care appeared in...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This illness will affect one third of our population. That is the reality.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: We now have a strategy that Professor Keane has described as being among the best in the world. He has said so to me and to many others and I understand that this evening he said it on television. The authorities in British Columbia said the same and they have one of the best organised cancer care systems in the world, which I have visited. Professor Keane spearheaded the implementation of...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Why would anybody go with something different? There are 250 evidence-based clinical reports from clinicians around the world to the effect that one's chances improve 20%. That means that one in five people would die if not treated in a centre that can deal with volume and quality and have all the sub-specialists working as part of clinical teams.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: That is what specialist centres are all about. It is not about centres of excellence. Every hospital in Ireland should be a centre of excellence. This is about specialist centres where key specialists work together as part of a team diagnosing cancer and, where surgery is necessary, performing that surgery.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Much of the follow up, such as chemotherapy, can happen in other places. Why would we not go along with that, given the clinical expertise in Ireland and all over the world? What are we putting first?

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Why would we not go along with the implementation of those plans?

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (27 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I wish we had done it ten or 20 years ago, but we are where we are and we are going to do it now.