Results 17,161-17,180 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: It is very confusing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: We will try not to talk about ophthalmologists and ophthalmic opticians while we are at it as well.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I think the Deputy is right. Up to recently, the only professions that were in any way regulated were doctors and nurses, and now we are working our way down through other professions. One area that we have committed to regulate, which will be very complicated, is that of counsellors and psychotherapists, but in the period of the next Government we will be looking at other professions, and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: Will I be a Deputy? I do not know. I am at the mercy of the public, just as the Deputy is.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: To be honest, I do not think any Department confers recognition on bodies. It is not that we say, "We recognise this group and we do not recognise that group."
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: They can do that. They do not need Government approval to do so.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Draft Regulations on the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005: Motion (28 Jan 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I thank the members of the committee, the Chairman, and the staff of the committee for all the work done in the last couple of years. I know some of the hearings have been robust - as they should be - but, particularly when it came to legislation, the committee fulfilled its legislative role very well in terms of both scrutinising and enhancing legislation. I hope the various constituents...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Reform (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: The Government has embarked on a multi-annual programme of health reform, the aim of which is to deliver universal health care, as defined by the World Health Organization, where everyone can access the health services they need, which are of sufficient quality to be effective, while ensuring that the use of these services does not expose them to financial hardship. In April 2014, the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Reform (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I do not accept the analysis that people are on hospital trolleys because GP services cannot cope.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Reform (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: That may be true for a small number of patients on trolleys but generally speaking, it is the case that if somebody is on a trolley waiting for a hospital bed, that person is there because he or she has been seen by a doctor, or perhaps by two or three doctors, and those doctors have determined the person requires admission to a hospital. Consequently, the idea there is somehow a direct...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Reform (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I believe that is all achievable and affordable in the lifetime of the next Government.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Reform (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: Better primary care and better social care are part of the solution to the problems in our hospitals. It is not the entire solution. The Deputy must bear in mind that if more people are seen in a primary care setting, that may result in more referrals to hospitals. On one level, more people will be managed in the community but, on another, more illness will be picked up. If we have much...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ambulance Service Provision (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: Over the past few years, the national ambulance service, NAS, has undertaken significant reconfiguration and modernisation of its services. It now operates on a national and regional rather than a local basis. Ambulance resources, including rapid response vehicles with advanced paramedics, are dynamically deployed over an area from individual stations within, and surrounding, that area....
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ambulance Service Provision (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will know that I cannot comment on individual cases. I was not given prior notification that the Deputy would raise this individual case but, certainly, if he wants to give me the details, I will have the position checked by the National Ambulance Service. It is important to point out that there has been a significant increase in investment in the ambulance service in recent...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ambulance Service Provision (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: It is the case that a great deal more must be done. I accept that we need to improve our ambulance response times. As individuals who could potentially be the next Minister for Health, I say to Deputies Ó Caoláin and Kelleher that they should be careful about what they promise. It will never be possible to have an ambulance, a squad car and a fire engine at every crossroads in...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ambulance Service Provision (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: We need to be honest with people about that.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Ambulance Service Provision (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I reiterate that an additional €7.2 million - this is an increase on outturn - is being provided in the budget for the ambulance services in 2016. That includes €2 million to recruit and train extra staff and also to expand the community first responder scheme. The National Ambulance Service has recently completed a national recruitment campaign and is commencing an...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Equipment (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: University Hospital Waterford opened a new CT scanner in April 2015. I understand the staff who operated the older scanner were redeployed to the new machine but no additional staff resources were available to allow for the continued operation of the old machine. Operation of the new scanner required additional nursing and health care assistant staff. Delays in staff recruitment at that...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Equipment (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: I can only go on what I am told by the hospital because I am not involved in the day-to-day running of the facility or the recruitment of staff there. I am advised by the hospital that there was a difficulty in recruiting staff and that this is the reason the new machine did not open until April 2015 and that it is now putting together a business case to open the second machine. With two...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Equipment (2 Feb 2016)
Leo Varadkar: That is the plan. I am advised that emergency and very urgent CT scans are completed on the same day or within a week, that there are 208 patients waiting for urgent scans, that the average wait time is three to four months and that there are 313 patients waiting for routine or semi-urgent scans and that the current average waiting time for them is from four to six months. Given this may...