Results 12,761-12,780 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I will speak about both the winter plan and next year's budget. The winter plan is a big plan worth €600 million, which makes it approximately 20 times bigger than previous winter plans. The budget for next year is the biggest funding package, but it is also the biggest set of targets in terms of new beds, new hires, community home care, etc. What we have done with the money is...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, absolutely.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, let me give the Deputy an example. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association came out in the past day or two and said there were 728 unfilled consultant posts. That is correct, in that there are not permanent full-time positions in those posts.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: There are a few. There are fixed-term contracts. For example, of the 3,446 posts that are currently filled, 2,680 are permanent, 520 are fixed-term contracts and 246 are specified-purpose contracts. There are actual vacant posts and then there are posts which are filled by temporary contracts or agency staff. What I want, and what I think we all want, is full-time people in those posts.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I have no doubt that there are, but the HSE is actively filling them with temporary staff where it can, as per the consultant contracts. The Deputy can be sure that on an ongoing basis there are other posts that could have temporary people in them.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I think it is being done. For example, agency nursing staff are being used right across the system. I would like a HSE where we never need agency staff or perhaps if there is a surge somewhere that one could bring in agency staff. What I want is safe staffing levels for nursing and midwifery so that the reliance on agency staff is reduced.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: It depends on the different types of roles. If Deputy Durkan wishes, I will ask the HSE to revert to the Deputy with a note on that?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: No. I do not think so. If we go back to when the report was published and when the implementation plan was published – I do not have the latter in front of me – if we were to pull that out and look at the Gantt charts and what was meant to happen by when, I imagine we would find that Sláintecare is behind in an awful lot of areas. If there is any silver lining within the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I will get the Deputy a note on how many operations have happened this year, both in HSE and private hospitals. The NTPF puts out bids asking, say, who wants to perform 20 hip replacements or 100 cataract operations. Public and private hospitals can bid if they feel they have spare capacity or they want to ramp things up. Given the length of the waiting lists, I would like us to be more...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan and I are working very closely on this. We have allocated sizable additional funds next year for exactly what the Deputy has outlined to help the providers and the residential care facilities. The waiting lists are too long. Again, during the Covid pandemic, many things were done that had never been done....

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I will.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I was at an EU health minister's meeting earlier at which the new executive director of the European Medicines Agency, EMA, Ms Emer Cooke, who is Irish, gave an update. The EMA will authorise the vaccines. The exact timeline is as follows: on 1 October the EMA started rolling reviews of three of the vaccines, from AstraZenica, Pfizer and Moderna; yesterday, Pfizer and Moderna submitted...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, it is. The Supplementary Estimates for which I seek the committee’s approval today include a substantial amount for PPE for this year. To give a sense of scale, the HSE normally spends €15 million on PPE annually; this year it will be close to €1 billion. The Supplementary Estimates contains almost €700 million just for PPE. They put in place very...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Anyone travelling should pay for the test themselves. I do not think that public money should be used for that; I would prefer to use that to hire doctors and nurses, pay for vaccines and so on. I think Ireland and Finland are the only orange zone countries in the EU. For anyone leaving Ireland for another member state, the rule states they must have had a negative PCR test within three...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I would be open to considering that. It is not something that has been considered. This issue has largely come up today as part of a good and well-worked campaign. I was asked about it early this morning for the first time and it is something I am happy to consider. As it happens, if it is €100 and we have approximately 30,000 nurses, that would be a cost of approximately €3...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Is this what is happening in Sligo?

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I put it in the programme for Government.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I met with the optometrists before the programme for Government talks, they told me all about it and it seemed like a fantastic idea so I asked that it was included in the programme for Government. It is Sláintecare. It is joining up pathways of care and designing and wrapping the care around the patient. It is an excellent idea.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Not as of yet but we are committed to doing it.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: This is one of the areas that is exciting and that we can make an awful lot of progress on in the coming years. When we launched the expert review on nursing homes, one of the leads, who is a consultant geriatrician, was comparing the percentage of people we have in nursing homes in Ireland with the percentage in Finland. Finland is probably seen as the best example. I cannot remember the...