Results 16,481-16,500 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (25 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: The international evidence base indicates that clinical skill levels and patient safety can be safeguarded by centralising acute and complex care and thereby ensuring a sufficient throughput of cases. It is vital to ensure that services are provided safely and to a high quality. While the more complex services are increasingly being concentrated in a smaller number of larger centres, this...

Written Answers — Infectious Diseases: Infectious Diseases (25 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Tackling all Health Care Associated Infections (HCAIs), including MRSA and C. difficile, continues to be a priority for the government and the Health Service Executive (HSE). HCAIs are not a new phenomenon and have always been a potential complication of medical treatment, especially in hospitals. This is the case worldwide. As the Deputy will be aware, the HSE launched a National Infection...

Written Answers — Hospitals Building Programme: Hospitals Building Programme (25 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: In drawing up its capital programme, the Health Service Executive is required to prioritise the capital infrastructure projects to be progressed within its overall capital funding allocation under the National Development Plan, taking account of targets for the division of capital investment between the Acute and Primary, Community & Continuing Care sectors. The process leading to the...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (25 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Under the Health Act 2004, the management and delivery of health and personal social services is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive. This includes operational responsibility for the upgrading, improving, replacing or extending of health centres. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have this matter...

Written Answers — Ministerial Staff: Ministerial Staff (25 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: The information requested by the Deputy is outlined in the tables below. Table 1: Staffing Position at November 2008 Private Secretary Executive Officer Staff Officer Clerical Officer Special Advisor Personal Assistant Total Private Office 1 2 1 4 2 1 11 Constituency Office 2 1 3 Table 2: Administrative Budget details — Paid to date 2008 (to date) Total Pay Travel &...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (25 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: The Department of Health and Children has currently 12,586 boxes of files held in an off-site storage facility. The estimated annual costs for 2008, which include general storage, the provision of a high-security vault and collection and return services, are approximately €62,000 inclusive of VAT. The storage elements of these costs are borne by the Office of Public Works.

Written Answers — Hospital Staff: Hospital Staff (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004 and funding for all health services is provided in its annual vote. Subject to overall parameters set by Government, the HSE has the responsibility for determining the composition of its staffing complement. Therefore the...

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Under the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme, section 11 of the 1989 Capitation Contract states: "The Medical practitioner shall:— furnish to a person whom he has examined and for whom he is obliged to provide services (or, in the case of a child, to his parent) a certificate in relation, to any illness noticed during the examination which is reasonably required by him or by the parent...

Written Answers — Ambulance Service: Ambulance Service (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Under the Health Act 1970, statutory responsibility for the provision of public ambulance services rests with the Health Service Executive. As permitted under the relevant legislation, the HSE (and, prior to 2005, its predecessor bodies) has arranged with Dublin City Council for the provision by that body of emergency ambulance services in Dublin. This arrangement applies only in Dublin....

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Regulation (EC) 1408/71 provides, inter alia, that people who are insured with or covered by the health care system of one Member State may access health care in the public system of another Member State in certain circumstances. Under the provisions of this Regulation, an Irish resident who goes to another Member State on a temporary stay but who remains ordinarily resident in Ireland is...

Written Answers — National Lottery Funding: National Lottery Funding (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: National Lottery funding, including Capital Funding, allocated to the Health Service Executive (and health boards prior to 2005) for the years 2000 and 2008 is as follows: Year Amount Allocation â'¬m 2000 5.193 2001 5.287 2002 5.496 2003 5.584 2004 5.669 2005 9.557 2006 8.883 2007 10.241 2008 10.052 The HSE has the operational and funding responsibility for National Lottery...

Written Answers — Vaccination Programme: Vaccination Programme (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Two vaccines to prevent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infections are licensed for use in Ireland. The vaccines can be administered to females with a minimum age of 9 years. Three doses are required over a six month period. The cost of the vaccine is set by the manufacturers and the cost of its administration on a private basis is a matter between individuals and their medical practitioners....

Written Answers — Hospitals Building Programme: Hospitals Building Programme (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: The Board of the HSE has approved preferred bidder status for the development of co-located hospitals at Beaumont Hospital and at five other public hospitals. Project Agreements for the Beaumont Hospital project and for two of the other projects were signed in March 2008 and preparatory work for the Project Agreements for the three remaining projects is proceeding. Planning permission was...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: In 2006 and 2007, additional revenue funding of €6.78 million (€4.78m in 2006, €2m in 2007) was provided to the Health Service Executive (HSE) to develop services for people with cystic fibrosis. The Department is advised that 44 additional staff dealing with cystic fibrosis have been appointed to date across a number of hospitals, including St Vincent's, Beaumont, Temple Street,...

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: As the Health Service Executive has the operational and funding responsibility for the medical card benefit, it is the appropriate body to consider the particular case raised by the Deputy. My Department has therefore requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to address this matter and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Entitlement to health services in Ireland is primarily based on residency and means. Any person, regardless of nationality, who is accepted by the Health Service Executive (HSE) as being ordinarily resident in Ireland is entitled to either full eligibility (Category 1, i.e. medical card holders) or limited eligibility (Category 2) for health services. The HSE normally regards a person as...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: The Deputy may be referring to the report by Dr Ronnie Pollock which was commissioned by the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland and published in 2005. Following publication of this report, the Health Service Executive established a Working Group to undertake a detailed review of cystic fibrosis services. The Group, which was multi-disciplinary in its composition, was asked to review the...

Written Answers — Hospital Waiting Lists: Hospital Waiting Lists (26 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) carried out a value for money examination of the Waiting List Initiative for the period between 1998 and 2002 and presented his report in 2003. Among the findings, the C&AG report pointed to the scope for coordinating waiting list funding more effectively. In light of this, and the commitment in the 2001 Health Strategy to reform the organisation...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (27 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: Almost 130,000 people work full-time or part-time in our public health services. In recent years, the Government's ongoing high level of investment in health has achieved and maintained significant increases in the numbers of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals employed in the public health services. The Government has also invested heavily in the education and training of such...

Written Answers — Medicinal Products: Medicinal Products (27 Nov 2008)

Mary Harney: EU member states are the main purchasers of medicines in their domestic markets. They naturally seek to control drug prices, but the extent of this control varies widely. Some countries, such as the UK and Germany, rely more on market forces to set prices. Spain and Portugal, on the other hand, closely regulate and control prices. Ireland's pricing policy is somewhere in the middle of the...