Results 15,441-15,460 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Are we talking specifically about community-based care, social care and staffing across community-based care?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: In fairness to the HSE there has been action. Some of that would have been taken under the previous Government. The chronic disease management agreement with the GPs was put in place by the previous Government. It was activated through this year and further ramped up in the winter plan. It is also being further ramped up in the national service plan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I will ask a member of the Sláintecare team to get back to the Deputy with a detailed note on that. Various programmes and pilots are being rolled out and looked at this year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: On the Deputy's previous comment, we will have to agree to disagree. I know from the Sláintecare team and some of the testimony the team gave to the committee that its view is that this budget is very much a Sláintecare budget. They are very excited by Sláintecare and spoke very highly of it. Obviously, the Deputy and I just have different views on that, which is fine. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I asked NPHET to come back with a formal view on it for exactly the reasons laid out by the Deputy. NPHET has published a paper on it, which I will ask the Department to send on to the committee. My non-medical synopsis of the paper is that it was very positive about vitamin D generally in boosting the immune system. I may be wrong on this, but, from memory, I believe its conclusion was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: That does not sound right to me at all. I will raise it directly with the HSE. We need as many vaccinators as possible. The last time I looked at the figures, I believe approximately 7,700 vaccinators had been trained. The number is probably higher now. I received the report some time ago. However, it includes GPs, pharmacists and the vaccination teams we have in place. I would like...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: If the Deputy does not mind, I prefer not to make definitive statements on the process right now. There may be reasons particular things must be followed. I will certainly ask the HSE to take a look at that, however. It sounds like a lot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: If anyone in any of the cohorts being done now or that will be done next, which are the high-risk, very high-risk and underlying condition categories, has any worry about not being contacted by a GP, they or a family member can make a telephone call to 185 024 1850. As the Deputy quite rightly said, not everyone has a GP and not everyone is on a list. I know in my constituency in Wicklow,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. We are following the process as part of the EU. Our regulator is the European Medicines Agency, EMA. I can tell the Deputy from an update I received yesterday that the EMA is looking at some of these other vaccines, which are not the ones we have all been talking about. That is happening. We actually have quite a lot ourselves, however. For example, the three of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I would agree with the Deputy on the objective. This has to be a global vaccination programme. The reality right now is that the developed or richer world is buying up the global stock, and there is no question about that. Even if some of the stock was available for some other parts of the world very serious supports will need to be put in place in terms of healthcare supports, logistics,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I acknowledge the Deputy's ongoing work on this matter. As he will be well aware, there are two avenues to access these particular treatments. One is the ministerial licence scheme, which been active to date. Since 2016, when the scheme was brought in, 144 licences have been approved for 55 separate patients. What the Deputy and I have focused on is the medicinal cannabis access...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: To the Senator's initial point, it is the good news versus the challenges we face. The good news is the forecast that by the end of this week we will have administered more than 500,000 vaccine doses. Great credit goes to our vaccination teams across the country, as well as to the GPs, the practice nurses, the Defence Forces and so on. There have been so many people involved and it has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Senator. On her first question, I will get her a detailed response. It sounds like a contractual issue. If I had to hazard a guess, which I am loath to do, I imagine it would be to do with pay that is specifically about the clinical placement. However, I will get a detailed response from the Department as to why that would be. With regard to a bursary, the Senator referenced...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I apologise for talking across the Senator. We want the students to stay. If they are leaving en masse, we need to understand why. If a student in Ireland is being paid significantly more than a student in England, Scotland or Wales while doing a degree at €17,400 versus €,10,000, according to the figures I have been given, it stands to reason that pay is not why they are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I will finish on this. I am sorry as I do not mean to be taking up the Senator's time. In our very productive debate in the Seanad recently on her Bill, one of the questions I asked the Department was whether it could find for me any country in the world that paid more to students during their nursing and midwifery degrees than Ireland according to an arrangement not based on an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: That is a separate issue. It is also definitely worth considering.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Senator for that. We are all concerned about it. I am aware that BreastCheck has restarted. I want to make sure that I have the very latest information on the matter so I might revert to her with a written note, if that is acceptable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, it is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. That is an excellent question. The answer is that the experts do not know yet. The scientific and medical communities around the world are waiting to find out how long the vaccines last. It may differ for each vaccine and it may differ based on the intervals between vaccinations. What I can say is that we have pre-ordered just under 18.5 million doses, as the Deputy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Covid-19 Health Related Issues: Update (2 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: That is a good question. To an extent, Ireland and the rest of the world will have to wait and see. The strategy right now is to put in place very robust controls around international travel. Even before hotel quarantining is introduced, the measures we have in place will put us at the forefront of the EU. When we introduce hotel quarantining, which will be here very soon as the...