Results 2,221-2,240 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Medical Misdiagnosis (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: When they do that, they are subject to a great deal of criticism from the Deputy and his colleagues. The obstetrician from the UK is completely independent, as are Professor Turner and Ms Cathriona Molloy from Patient Focus. They are capable of carrying out the appropriate investigation and reporting accordingly with a view to making sure we have appropriate procedures in place and, in...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: I am supportive of an expanded role for pharmacists in the delivery of services at primary care level. Any such expansion of service should be cost-effective, promote the best use of health care resources, be evidence-based, be part of a structured framework of patient care and demonstrate direct benefits to patients. I am pleased to say there are currently a number of developments taking...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: Actually, I attended the meeting. "Facilitated" is the word used, but I organised the meeting.

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: I organised and attended the meeting because I was interested in exploring the role of pharmacists as Dr. White rolls out his clinical pathways. Pharmacists have major expertise and are important professionals in the health care system. I would like to see them more involved in some of the new clinical pathways. The pilot this summer will give us much information about the role of...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: I thank the Deputy.

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: I thank the Deputy for promoting me, but it is a different Mary who has the job of Tánaiste. I have discussed prescription charges with the IPU - not at the meeting I mentioned but at a different meeting - and the union expressed its views. The legislation has been approved by the Government and will be going to the Seanad next week. The intention is to have it operational as soon as...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: One area in which we have much information is on what drugs patients receive with assistance from the State. For example, all the drug costs of general medical scheme patients heretofore have been paid by the State. The HSE has data on all those patients and the medicines they receive each month and it pays pharmacies accordingly. The intention is that the legislation will provide for a...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: The fair care policy has not been costed, I am afraid. Any role for pharmacists must be in the area of appropriate use of medication, but there are other possibilities such as vaccination and screening. In the first instance, however, I am a strong fan of good advice and information for patients about the appropriate use of medication. International data show - this does not just apply to...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: I am sorry; I thought I had made it clear. As in other countries, the pharmacist may substitute the generic product-----

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: -----where it is like for like. Under the legislation there must be a legal framework for the system. We will have, for want of a better term, a technical group that will advise on what can be substituted for what. We will begin with a small number of drugs and move on. It generally takes a couple of years for countries to move fully from the old system to a reference pricing or generic...

Community Pharmacy Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: Yes. That is essential.

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 42, 48, 74, 81 and 167 together. Incidents of this kind are distressing to the women and families involved and I again express my sincerest sympathies to all of those who were affected. They are serious incidents and are treated as such. The initial case which was the subject of media coverage over the past two weeks, was brought to my attention by way of...

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: These tragic circumstances unfortunately occur and as the Deputy will know well, medical errors can occur. We need national standardised practice in so far as these matters are concerned. The appropriate people to introduce that standard practice are clinicians with expertise in this area. In particular, there is a strong role for the college of obstetrics and gynaecology.

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: It is not just a case of resources. Everything is not down to resources. It is the case in many hospitals in the country - and it should be the case - that a second opinion is sought in these circumstances. However, as I said in my response, it is not just simply a matter of machinery because there are a wider number of issues. We need to await the outcome of the review. The important...

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: It is not the case that we waited until this case came into the public domain. From the time this came to the attention of the HSE, of my Department and, in fairness, of the hospital, action was taken swiftly to establish what had happened in this case.

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: Furthermore, this case was seen by the chief medical officer and his team as an isolated case. It was not regarded as something that affected other areas. To put this in context, I refer to the Port Laoise issue in September 2008. As a result of the patient safety implications that arose, I set up new protocols in the Department for dealing with patient safety issues, because I frequently...

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: This relates to all these issues. We now have new clinical leadership emerging where clinicians will be involved in rolling out clinical pathways in this and other areas. It is only when we have this standardised approach from the college of obstetrics and gynaecology that we can be assured, whether in the public or private sector, of a standardised approach throughout the country.

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: There is no way of establishing that. The review will do that. As I mentioned, up to last Friday approximately 295 calls had been made since the helpline was opened. I understand that 95% of those calls were made to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. I do not suggest all of those calls are cases, but obviously they were from people who had a miscarriage. To put the numbers in context, we have...

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: The clinical advice I have received from Professor Turner and others is that it should be signed off by an obstetrician. It would be difficult if we required a signing off by two obstetricians in every case because we have some very small hospitals where there are only two or three obstetricians. The machine in question was not old. The lifespan of these machines is seven years and the one...

Hospital Services (22 Jun 2010)

Mary Harney: No, the point I am making is that it was not a machine that had passed its sell-by date. It was within the seven-year timeframe.