Results 15,401-15,420 of 46,036 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: It is due next year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: No. This year, unlike last year, every student nurse was or will be offered a job in the Irish health service. That has come after years of our nursing graduates having to go abroad because there were no jobs in this country. Measures are being taken now. Nursing organisations and I would agree that there is a need to do more. In order to do more, we need to do things on an evidence...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Yes, to the best of my knowledge. Deputy Kelly asked a number of questions. As he knows, we received a significant increased capital allocation - the best part of €500 million - in the health budget. He is right, in that the national children's hospital consumes the bulk of our available capital, but more so in the early years. The HSE will conduct a reprofiling exercise and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Deputy Kelly's narrative on the reconfiguration in the mid-west in years gone by is a valid one, but neither he, management in Limerick nor I would accept that there is not more that could be done now. For example, weekend discharges had nothing to do with bed capacity but were not happening at the rate they should have been. A number of other things should have been happening but were not....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is right to advocate for a health area that he knows well and we are not going to disagree about the need for additional capacity and supports for the mid-west. The emphasis that I am placing is shared by the hospital group's CEO, who is providing excellent leadership contrary to how people have been trying to spin my comments.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: I have met her a number of times. She is providing very good leadership and has put in place an action plan for the hospital. Since putting it in place, and as the Deputy will have noticed in the trolley figures for recent weeks, there has been a significant improvement. She needs to be supported by everyone working in the hospital and the clinical community. I did not think that opening...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: We are already beginning to see a benefit in that regard. The leadership in the hospital and the hospital group is well up for this challenge. It and I have a role to play and we are working collaboratively. Regarding the GP contract, and as I mentioned on the recent budget day, there was no budget day funding allocation in the year that the free GP care for under sixes was introduced,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: To start where Senator Dolan finished, I agree that this is less than ideal. That said, I alerted the committee as soon as I knew that there was a Cabinet meeting at 10 a.m. I was here three weeks ago and will be back again in November. I am happy to come back this afternoon, tomorrow, or whenever the committee wants me to be here. I am always available to this committee and these Houses....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: We expect it to be finalised in the coming months. It should be finalised by 2018. I do not want to be too specific. I have a job to do for the taxpayer as well and I do not want to tie the State's hands in these discussions. That said, I expect the process to come to a conclusion in the next couple of months. I thank Senator Dolan for his questions. I know that the Minister of State,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Let me state the obvious in relation to FEMPI. Of course it has had an impact on general practice, just like it has had an impact on so many contractors and public servants across the country. We all know the rationale and the reasoning behind its introduction. There was a national financial emergency. We know the economy is in a much better place now, thank God, and we know we are trying...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: There was a budget line in the budget book in respect of the €1 million, which is in line with the €10 million allocated to Sláintecare over ten years. There will be €1 million in the first year for a Sláintecare implementation office or a Sláintecare programme office. Issues in respect of the recruitment of the lead executive are being worked on and will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Yes, very much so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: I will ask the HSE to comment in that regard. Obviously HIQA has a role as an independent regulator. I do not wish to say anything which involves me in a space in which I should not be involved, but at the last meeting Deputy Kelly alerted the committee that the potential impact of this situation may be broader than any one facility. I will ask the director general of the HSE to give his...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Again, I apologise for the way in which today worked out with the Cabinet meeting. I see, however, that the health service is very ably represented by the director general, the Secretary General, the two Ministers of State - Deputies Jim Daly and Finian McGrath - and the other officials from the HSE. I wish to comment on the conversation on public and private services. From a policy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: I do not believe it is desirable, when emergency departments are overcrowded, that space in public hospitals is being used in such a way that private practice can continue unquestioned, although we are generating a very significant income from it, as the Chairman stated entirely correctly. From an equity point of view, that is an issue all of us wish to grapple with but there is recognition,...

Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (19 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Kelleher for bringing forward this important legislative proposal. I commend the Deputy on his work in this area and assure him that I and Government will support the reading of this Bill for a Second Time. In doing so, I caution that, as has already been recognised by Deputy Kelleher, we need to do a good bit of work to tease through the Bill before it proceeds to the next...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (19 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual. The National...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (19 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual. The scheduling...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health and Social Care Professionals Regulation (19 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: It is my intention to have the draft regulations designating the two distinct professions of counsellor and psychotherapist submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas for their approval in late October or early November, 2017. These regulations will also establish the registration board and provide for an increase in the number of positions on Council. These regulations will not introduce...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Dental Services Provision (19 Oct 2017)

Simon Harris: As this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply to the Deputy.