Results 23,521-23,540 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, far short.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: That is right.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: As the Deputy is aware, the HSE has revised its view as to what is achievable this year, and its view is approximately 5,500 whole-time equivalents. However, I would make two points. First, on the 10,000 figure, I am very comfortable setting stretch targets that move the HSE and the Department beyond what they are comfortable trying to achieve. Second, the fact there is now a gap between...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for her questions. While I am going to get into the substance of it straight away, I am very uncomfortable with civil servants being secretly recorded, those recordings being given to newspapers and then those civil servants being named in those newspapers. I hope we are all on the same page on this. Civil servants must challenge the agencies, in this case the HSE. They...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I will answer the questions directly but I might ask the Department to provide a more detailed note for the committee because these are important issues and there is much more detail than I can cover here. On the financial management system, the detailed design was completed in quarter 2 of last year. The capital budget for the programme is €82 million. That...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: We will look for a note on that. We can give the Deputy a breakdown by different areas, including nursing, midwifery, clinical specialties, non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs, health and social care professionals, and management and administrative grades. I am seeking a note on, which I will revert to the Deputy with.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. I will get the Deputy a note on CHOs and hospital groups, which is the best way to look at it for the acute hospital services.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: The different departments, hospitals, CHOs and clinical specialties have timelines against which they would like all of those staff recruited. We will include that information in the note.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: There are a few areas where we will be spending more but it will be funding public patients. The aim of us using capacity from the private or independent sector is purely with a view to treating as many public patients as possible. As the Deputy will be aware, there have been several safety net agreements put in place. This means that when the capacity within the HSE hospital system is put...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: I will get the Deputy a detailed note on that.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: One of the things we must do is treat our non-consultant hospital doctors much better than we currently do. I do not believe the current training path they are asked to pursue on their way to becoming consultants is appropriate. It needs to be completely changed. I met recently with a group of NCHDs and I was shocked by what they told me about their reality. They have to travel around the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: There are a few changes I would make and we will be talking to the NCHDs and their representative bodies about them. The idea that they can be moved to any part of the country, with very little notice, sometimes relocating with their partners and children every year for ten years, is simply not acceptable. It is not acceptable for us to ask that of them. I am also very uncomfortable with...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: I share the Deputy's concern entirely. For example, we have paediatric surgeons who do not have sufficient operating theatre time. There are children who need to be operated on and we have doctors who want to operate on them and they cannot get access to operating theatres. It is not acceptable. We are doing a few things at the same time. We are increasing the number of operating...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: On the Deputy's second question on operating theatres, I do not know what the specifics are but if he sends me the details, I will take a look at them. Regardless of what they are, I agree that it takes the State too long to add facilities to the public health service. It takes too long to add critical care beds and operating theatres and to build hospitals. It is something the Department...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: There are several pieces to this. The first was to remove the ban on non-EU doctors training as specialists, and that was received well by those doctors. We are looking at the stamp 4 matter, as the Deputy outlined, and it takes in the Departments dealing with health, justice and perhaps foreign affairs. I want to see this moved quickly. The Deputy has correctly point out that we have...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (24 Feb 2022)

Stephen Donnelly: I appreciate we are out of time but my understanding is the matter is almost resolved. We are nearly there on it and it is something of which we are very aware. We want to get it sorted. I will provide the committee with a note on it. The advice I have is we are almost there.