Results 15,661-15,680 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 118, 121 and 254 together. Tackling all health care associated infections, including MRSA and C. difficile, continues to be a priority for the Government and the Health Service Executive. Health care acquired infections are not a new phenomenon and have always been a potential complication of medical treatment, especially in hospitals. That is the case...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I am sorry to hear of the circumstances experienced by the Deputy's mother-in-law. I recall, as a young girl, hearing people talking about the "hospital bug". In more recent years we have been able to put names on some of these infections. The reality is that the infrastructure of the health system is still catching up. For example, we have a long way to go in terms of the number of...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I will not get into the medical-legal bill. There are many lawyers going around this country dealing with that issue and I will not assist them in any way. The fact that we now have the data, however, is hugely positive. We do not know what the figures were ten years ago because we never measured them so we do not know if it is getting worse. There was an improvement in 2007 over 2006,...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I must tell the Deputy that we will not have the capital funding to do all the things we would love to do with our public hospitals. We have over 40 hospitals, many of which are very old. If we were establishing a health system today we would not have 40 hospitals but we do have that number of functioning hospitals and in the short to medium-term it is just not possible to provide the...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: There are five hospitals in the region and one third of their medical patients come to Dublin hospitals while half their surgical patients do so, which is an extraordinary statistic. Notwithstanding that, a person living in the north east is twice as likely to end up in hospital than in any other part of the country. There does not seem to be any reason for that. Whatever we are trying to...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: Until 13 September, there were 956 cases of C. difficile notified. As there was no notification before, we have nothing with which to compare these statistics. I do not think there is always a correlation between the money provided and the cleanliness of a hospital. Some of the hospitals that scored highest on the hygiene are those that have no microbiologist, such as Mallow hospital....

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I will answer Deputy Neville's question first if that is in order. Hygiene standards must be implemented in all health care settings, such as in the community setting and in residential settings caring for older people, children, individuals with a disability and the psychiatric setting. This is the intention in terms of the independent inspectorate from HIQA but it has not yet happened. I...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: Cases of litigation are always being taken against the health service and those matters are now managed by the State Claims Agency. Because we have enterprise liability I will not speculate on the outcome as this will depend on whether the State was liable. In the short term we can implement an approach based on hygiene which is what has been done. The most significant action would be to...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: The C. difficile infection is new and I cannot give the statistics on how we compare with other countries because we only commenced measuring its incidence on 4 May last and it is a new measurement. It is important we do not ——

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I remind the Deputy that half of all those who die in the country die in hospitals and this is the case in every other country. We have always had——

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: ——what was known as the hospital bug. There are now names on these different infectious diseases acquired as a result of health care. The challenge for us is to have the expertise and the infrastructure to deal with them. The hospital of the future will be the single-bed model and this is what will pertain in the new children's hospital and in the new St. Vincent's Hospital. We have...

Written Answers — Data Collection: Data Collection (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: For many decades, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has led the way in the development of standard classification systems for health data. Ireland participates fully in the work of the WHO and this includes adopting WHO standards in the area of health information. Examples of data collection systems which use WHO classification standards include vital statistics, hospital discharge data...

Written Answers — Hospitals Building Programme: Hospitals Building Programme (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: In July 2005 I issued a policy direction to the Health Service Executive aimed at freeing up additional beds in public hospitals for public patients. This will be achieved through the development of private hospitals on the sites of public hospitals and the transfer of private activity to those hospitals, thereby releasing substantial capacity for public patients in public hospitals. The...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 123 and 255 together. I am pleased that so many consultants have already accepted, or indicated they will be accepting, the new contract. In April 2008 the HSE re-commenced its consultant recruitment process and 128 posts have been advertised to date. The recruitment process to fill these posts is underway. During the period from May to August the HSE...

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I acknowledge that the number of bed days lost in acute hospitals as a result of delayed discharges is creating particular difficulties at the moment. Hospitals need to improve their admission/treatment and discharge processes to ensure that care is provided in a more timely, appropriate and efficient manner. Steps are being taken to ensure that patients are given an expected date of...

Written Answers — Departmental Reports: Departmental Reports (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 125 and 137 together. The radiology look-back review underway in the North East was prompted by concerns that a small number of patients in two Louth/Meath Hospitals during 2006/7 had their diagnosis delayed due to an abnormality on their chest x-ray not being noted on initial radiological examination. The review involves the x-rays and ct scans of...

Written Answers — Cancer Screening Programme: Cancer Screening Programme (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: On 1 September 2008 the National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) announced the availability of CervicalCheck, the National Cervical Screening Programme. The Programme will provide free smear tests through primary care settings to the 1.1 million women living in Ireland aged between 25 and 60 years. A successful national programme in Ireland has the potential to cut current mortality rates...

Written Answers — Departmental Reports: Departmental Reports (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 127 and 265 together. In May 2007 the Health Service Executive commissioned KPMG consultants to undertake an independent review of maternity and gynaecology services in the Greater Dublin area. In undertaking the review KPMG were asked to focus on four key areas: to build on the strengths of the current service configuration and model of care; to define the...

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I have received direct correspondence, and copies of correspondence to the Health Service Executive (HSE), from consultants at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda regarding acute hospital services at Drogheda. The issues raised have been the subject of detailed discussions between officials of my Department and the HSE in order to ensure that any action necessary is taken to guarantee the...

Written Answers — Water Quality: Water Quality (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: Following a recent tap water survey in Galway City elevated levels of lead were found in a number of houses. I am advised by the Health Service Executive that, from a public health perspective, the risk to those affected from raised water lead levels depends on a number of factors, including the duration of exposure, the level of exposure, age and other characteristics which affect the...