Results 2,441-2,460 of 7,823 for speaker:Jim Daly

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: Yes, but we do not know the extent of them. A major outbreak of influenza coupled with a storm could have catastrophic implications in terms of people being able to access services, so there is need for forward planning each year. Weather patterns are changing every year and thus the plan has to change.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: We have experienced severe storms, such as Storm Emma, which we did not experience in previous years. As the Deputy will be aware, it brought services to a standstill although staff made incredible efforts to get to work. I accept the Deputy's point but we must have contingency planning for particularly extreme events, which cannot be quantified year on year. In regard to the flu vaccine...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: Yes, for staff.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: No, they are not compulsory. A flu epidemic is especially problematic for elderly people in healthcare settings, whether acute hospitals or nursing homes. A nursing home could have to send up to ten of its residents into an accident emergency department at the height of the Christmas period and during bad weather conditions. Winter planning is important on many levels. It provides an...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: Deputy Durkan asked about private and public. He is aware of the de Buitléir report. There is a wider issue of the use of public and private facilities. On the question of health insurance, though, and as the Deputy will be aware, when people are admitted through an accident and emergency department, they can be admitted into either the public or private system. They have been...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: The Deputy is repeating what I have said. He accepts that we should be more focused on the real challenge, that being, what is affecting capacity in our hospital groups and preventing the free movement of people in and out of hospital. The Deputy was articulate in putting his point about the length of time spent on trolleys and that all of us should be damn glad to get onto a trolley...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: As a keen observer of the legislative timetable, the Deputy will be aware that two Acts of note have been enacted in the past year or so. Under one, there are periodic payments so that settlements, especially large ones and compensation awarded in the courts, can be paid out over a period while keeping in mind the wishes of and best outcome for the plaintiffs. It is hoped that that Act will...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: From what I recall, it was enacted in October 2017. It is in place and people can avail of it. They are two significant Acts that should contribute towards this issue, but the book of quantum and other issues have to be reviewed periodically as well.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: That is a good question and probably gets to the heart of the issue we are discussing today, namely, the difference in planning and implementation between the two years. Separate issues can arise, but demand was the main issue. There was an increase in demand. Our ageing demographic increased pressure on our health services, which has shifted the overrun's dynamic. Demand is increasing at...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: It is a difficult one to get right. I am not a forensic accountant, which the Chairman appreciates, so I will not be able to answer as definitively as I would like. In 2017, the overrun was much higher than the figure cited. We are taking the €139 million deficit from 2017 this year, but there was a Supplementary Estimate of €200 million on top of that in 2017. We could...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: The overarching issue of public versus private and the challenges presented in that regard are, as the Chairman knows, the subject of the de Buitléir report, which the Minister expects by, I think, year end, judging from my last conversation with the Minister on the matter. It is certainly imminent. It will address a number of issues on both sides. There will be positives and...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: Of how we do what we do. Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: That is stated in Sláintecare.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: There are a number of points to make. First, there is an increased focus on transitional care beds, that is, lower level step-down care. We all know that the cost of keeping someone in an acute setting is anecdotally said to be in the region of €7,000 a week, and in a community setting, a community hospital, about €1,000 a week. This is a matter of opening more transitional...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: I think I had this conversation with the Deputy a long time ago.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: He has raised the matter in the Dáil. Telehealth is a very interesting debate. In essence, telehealth does not require a whole lot of additional regulation. Telehealth is just a platform. It is not a new way of doing medicine. It is a screen-to-screen communication tool. At the other end of the screen is a fully regulated doctor or consultant. I refer to the example in my area of...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: I have indeed, extensively. I have had numerous engagements with the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and it is very enthusiastic about and supportive of this development. I held a national conference in the National Convention Centre Dublin and brought over clinicians who are doing this in the United States, Australia and so on to speak to the Irish clinicians. The day was deemed to be...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: That was a lengthy and substantial contribution and, therefore, I must respond. I could not disagree more with the Deputy. It is a fact that there is a worldwide shortage of consultant psychiatrists. We are short 60 of them in Ireland. I cannot make two out of any one consultant, no matter how hard I try. I can try breeding them or cloning them but I cannot make two out of one. All...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (5 Dec 2018)

Jim Daly: This is a familiar political chestnut that is often thrown around in these fora. I am not a spokesperson for the HSE. I have a responsibility within the Department that oversees the work of the HSE, but the HSE is better able to answer these questions itself. I intend, therefore, to give a broader context. Politicians like to make the popular point that there are many managers in the...