Results 1,761-1,780 of 12,424 for speaker:Louise O'Reilly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I accept some hospitals are making progress but the Minister freely admitted he is not quite sure what the reasons are. It is good that he is not trying to take any credit for that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I know. It is down to people working hard, in some instances despite the efforts of the Government.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I appreciate that. I said I would say that. I did not say the Minister would necessarily agree with me. Challenges are faced in those hospitals where trolley numbers are high. Overall the trolley figure is not good and the Minister would not claim it is-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: -----and it is getting worse. When a former Minister, Mary Harney, declared a national emergency during the last Fianna Fáil Government, there were 469 patients on trolleys. Another former Minister, Senator James Reilly, said we would never again see 569 people on trolleys, and then we reached 615. It is clear that while there may be hospitals that are working well or better or doing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: In any accident and emergency department in any hospital there will be staff working to the absolute top of their capability. People are giving way more than their contracted hours and going way beyond the call of duty. As well as looking at the successes - sometimes when we note the rate of increase has slowed, it is classed as a success - we have to look at what those hospitals that are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: The hospital group to which the Minister referred is operating an integrated waiting list management system. That was reported in the media.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I am still waiting for an update that was due in August in relation to the proposals we made. I appreciate that those in the Department call it a single integrated waiting list management system. We shorten that and call it Comhliosta. The Department officials can have that name if they wish. If it is proven to work, and it has been proven to work-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I know I do not need to do a job to convince the Minister. If it has been proven to work, even in a small number of hospitals, then logic should dictate that it can and should be deployed nationally.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I do not think I have any street cred. The Minister is all right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I imagine the Minister is looking at no one in particular

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: The Minister is aware of my views on agency staff. Greater efforts can and should be made to convert agency staff to directly employed staff. While the former do fantastic work, they do not provide the best value for money. Agency staff in the ambulance service and elsewhere find it very difficult to break into the HSE. They are knocking on the door. The employees the HSE is contracting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: The number of adult referrals has increased by 10,000. Will the Minister confirm that funding will be provided to deal with this increase? Obviously, more referrals mean more resources will be necessary.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Staff Recruitment (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: 2. To ask the Minister for Health the vacancy rates for consultants, doctors, nurses and midwives in the HSE; and his plans to fill those vacancies while also retaining existing staff in the HSE. [41006/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Staff Recruitment (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: My question is very straightforward. It provides the Minister with a platform and opportunity to tell the House all of the good news he has on recruitment and, specifically, retention measures for staff. My understanding is that we are losing consultants and other health care professionals as fast as they are coming in due to the poor quality of the working environment.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Staff Recruitment (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: If pay were the only issue, it would be sorted by now. However, it is not. Poor working environment is also an issue. The Minister is right that it is a chicken and egg question. We do need people to come and work in our health service. I note the Minister issued an appeal to graduates. I would appeal to him to make their workplace more appealing and, thereby, encourage more of them...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Staff Recruitment (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: I do not doubt there are nurses coming from overseas to work here. However, they are staying six months and then they are going on elsewhere. This has been said to me on more than one occasion by nurses' representatives because that is what they see in their workplace. I welcome the fact that there will be a nursing commission. We need a commission along the lines of the previous one...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE Staff Recruitment (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: It is true. It was taking much longer previously, but it is still taking months to get a permanent contract. They need to be issued as a matter of course. If that involves devolving the authority to do so down to the level of hospital management, then that should be done. The centralised recruitment process is not working.

Other Questions: Respite Care Services Data (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: 6. To ask the Minister for Health the number of hours of respite care offered to families of children with disabilities in the first nine months of 2017 as compared with the first nine months of 2016; and the way in which this compares with the number of applications for respite care by families for their child with a disability in the first nine months of 2017 as compared with the first nine...

Other Questions: Respite Care Services Data (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: The question is straightforward. I doubt if there is a Deputy in the House who does not receive daily requests for help and assistance from parents and carers who are desperate for respite. We are speaking to people who have not had respite for years rather than months and some who have not had any respite.

Other Questions: Respite Care Services Data (28 Sep 2017)

Louise O'Reilly: When I last raised this issue, it was on Leaders' Questions, which the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, was taking that day. I raised the case of Jacob Dooley, whose mother and father were in a desperate situation. As often happens in such circumstances, they had to turn to the media just to get some movement on their son's case. I asked specifically about the number of...