Results 14,061-14,080 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That cannot continue for the next couple of months. It seems that one of the major factors was the fact that there were so many delayed discharges, which was reducing bed capacity. That is why the additional money is being provided for community beds under the fair deal scheme, to free hospitals of the current level of delayed discharges in order that they can operate more effectively....

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Improving waiting lists for scheduled care is a key priority for me and the Government. Taking into account current pressures on acute hospital services, I have put in place a target that by mid-year nobody will wait more than 18 months for inpatient or day case treatment or an outpatient appointment, with a further reduction to a waiting time of no more than 15 months by year end. The...

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The figure of 400,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments probably involves a good deal of double counting. It includes people waiting to see a number of consultants for the same condition. Deputies should bear in mind that it also includes routine appointments and people who are waiting one week or perhaps two or three weeks for appointments. It is not that everyone in that figure...

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Inevitably in health any time we provide a new service, it generates a new waiting list. That is one of the paradoxes of health care. What we are trying to do is set minimum targets and minimum acceptable limits. Even they are going to be difficult to reach.

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I reiterate the fact that the figure of 400,000 includes people who are waiting for routine appointments for a few weeks. I am focusing on waiting times. When we talk to individual patients they talk about how long they have been waiting, not whether they are placed 1,647 on the list. They want to talk about how long they are waiting. That is why the target should be about waiting times....

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: There are many different factors that contribute to trolley waits. Some of those factors vary from hospital to hospital. While there are difficulties recruiting certain specialties of consultants and certain categories of non-consultant hospital doctors and nurses, recruitment was not a major factor in the difficulties faced by the emergency departments in recent months. Indeed, staffing...

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The figures Deputy Coppinger is using include people who are not on trolleys and who are not in emergency Departments. If Deputy Coppinger does not believe me, she should go to www.inmo.ie/Trolley_Ward_Watch. It will explain exactly how those figures are calculated. Specifically, in Connolly Memorial Hospital the figures include people who are put on the day ward or the surgical day ward...

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am a little confused about the point the Deputy is making. She is saying that Connolly Hospital could not recruit agency staff over Christmas because staff were not willing to work over Christmas, so it was not that there was some type of Government edict that they could not do it or that the resources were not there. They just were not able to find agency staff willing to work over...

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am not entirely sure what we were supposed to do about that at the time.

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As I pointed out in the numbers I gave the Deputy, we are creating proper jobs. We will hire at least 500 additional nurses to proper jobs with proper contracts across the country this year, but that will not get people off trolleys. People are not on trolleys because of the number of nurses. It is to do with admission rates, bed capacity and many other different issues. It is not the...

Other Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy will be aware, the economic crisis necessitated significant reductions in health service expenditure in recent years. Notwithstanding the difficult economic climate, a range of new services have been introduced in the south east in the past five years, which have been of benefit to those in County Wexford who are affected by substance misuse issues. The additional services...

Other Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The question the Deputy asked related to cuts to funding to drugs and alcohol treatment in County Wexford. Had I been aware that he wanted to raise mental health services more broadly in the south east, I would have prepared for the question a bit better. I am informed that the 24-hour service for the south east operates from Waterford and that Wexford is catered for from there but also by...

Other Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As far as I understand, people can be seen in the community and from there be referred to the specialist centre in Waterford if that is what is best for them. It is worth pointing out, and I hope this will not be taken up wrong, that there are such things as psychiatric emergencies. Provision can be made, using either emergency ambulances or intermediate care vehicles to transfer patients to...

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The party of which the Deputy is a member did that when it was still in government and before we took office. Of course, he was still in the Labour Party at the time.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: No.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: No.

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: This is-----

Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am very familiar with it; it is about patient safety and quality.

Topical Issue Debate: Regulation of Health and Social Care Professions (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Dan Neville for raising the issue and giving me an opportunity to update the House on the ongoing programme of regulation of health and social care professionals being undertaken by the Department of Health. The regulation of the 14 professions currently designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005, including the optical professions, is being implemented...

Topical Issue Debate: Regulation of Health and Social Care Professions (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the argument and case that Deputy Neville is making. He is absolutely right that there are a number of very strange people out there advertising their services as psychotherapists, counsellors and all sorts of other things. Not only may they not be very good, they can also do real harm in certain circumstances. If we are going to regulate the professions, we must ensure that...