Results 17,621-17,640 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I have not been briefed to answer that question and will revert to the Deputy, if that is in order. As for the sterile unit, it will happen this year. There is a commitment——

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: No.

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I am advised this will happen during 2009. In respect of many of the issues pertaining to critical care and high dependency, if the hospitals continued to operate separately as two independent hospitals, it would not be possible to deliver the high-quality service that currently is the benchmark. While this may not have been the benchmark in the past, in regard to the answers to earlier...

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: As for the services within Portiuncula, the HealthStat data on Portiuncula were highly disappointing and serious issues must be addressed within that hospital pertaining to a number of issues, including the public-private mix and many other areas that I will not go through here. From henceforth, they will work virtually as a single entity, certainly as far as surgery and other services are...

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I do not know the answer regarding the critical care report. As the Deputy is aware, there are serious industrial relation issues in Portiuncula, which are costing an enormous amount of money. That issue is before the industrial relations machinery of the State at present and the sooner it is addressed, the better because of the amount of money that is being wasted. I do not know whether...

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: We have been losing €30,000 on this dispute for quite a long time now.

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: As the Deputy is aware, Monaghan and Cavan will operate as a single hospital.

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: They are a single hospital.

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: Roscommon and Portiuncula hospitals will work much more closely together than was the case in the past.

Hospital Services. (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: As the Deputy is fully aware, they were removed for patient safety reasons.

Written Answers — Health Insurance: Health Insurance (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: The Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Act, 2008 placed an obligation the VHI to have accumulated sufficient capital by 31 December 2008 to allow the company to submit an application to the Financial Regulator for authorisation as an insurance undertaking. When the Act was passed it appeared that the company would be in a position to satisfy the Regulator's solvency requirements....

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: If the best possible services are to be delivered within available resources, pay costs have to be contained and reduced. The Government has already introduced the pension-related deduction for the public service in the context of the need to stabilise the public finances and achieve expenditure adjustments. In addition, the Government has recently announced the implementation of a...

Written Answers — Medicinal Products: Medicinal Products (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 44, 51 and 70 together. The use of a proprietary drug or a generic equivalent is a matter for the prescriber, in consultation with the patient. Both my Department and the HSE support the increased use of generics where this is appropriate. Prescription drugs can be classified into four groups: proprietary drugs which have a generic equivalent, proprietary...

Written Answers — Long-Term Illness Scheme: Long-Term Illness Scheme (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: There are currently no plans to extend the list of eligible conditions covered by the Long Term Illness Scheme, which was introduced on a statutory basis in 1971. Under the Drugs Payment Scheme, which was introduced in 1999, no individual or family unit pays more than €100 per calendar month towards the cost of approved prescribed medicines. The scheme is easy to use and significantly...

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 46 and 53 together. Following enactment of the Health Act 2008, the Health Service Executive (HSE) wrote to all medical card holders aged 70 years and over in January 2009. Persons who were in receipt of a medical card on a non means tested basis were requested, if over the income limits set out in the Act, to make a declaration to the Executive, on or before...

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: Details of the number of medical card holders and GP visit card holders are provided to my Department each month by the Health Service Executive (HSE). The figures are provided on a net basis, showing the balance after new cards have been issued and other cards, as appropriate, have been deleted from the Executive's database, e.g. following a review of a person's circumstances. The most...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: The Health Service Executive (HSE) approved a total of 283 medical consultant posts from April to December 2008. Of these, 156 are new posts and 127 are replacement posts. The Executive has approved a further 43 posts to date in 2009: 27 of these are new posts and 16 are replacement posts. The Public Appointments Service provides recruitment, assessment and selection services for the HSE...

Written Answers — Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme: Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 49 and 67 together. The Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006 provides the framework for the repayment of recoverable health charges to those who were incorrectly charged for publicly funded long stay care. The Act only provides for prescribed repayments to be made in respect of recoverable health charges. Recoverable health charges are charges for in-patient...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 52 and 227 together. The new consultants' contract does not represent a pay increase for consultants for doing the same work. Instead it entails a fundamentally different way of working that involves clinicians in the management and leadership of the acute hospital system. The contract ensures clinicians are involved in the management of budgets and that...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Harney: In 2008, concerns were raised about the practice of a Paediatric Audiological Scientist who had worked primarily in Cork from 2001 to 2007. A detailed investigation of these concerns was undertaken and 1,231 former clients of the Audiology Service are being recalled for precautionary check-up appointments as part of a Look Back Review. The recall appointments commenced on 18th March and they...