Results 25,721-25,740 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy makes a very valid point. Information that is available, provided it is collected accurately, should be made public in order that patients can see it and if there are discrepancies between hospitals and services, they can at least ask probing questions as to why. That is why a few months ago, for the first time, my Department published data by hospital for all sorts of issues,...

Other Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Others do the damned lies.

Other Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I agree in principle and if HIQA wants to start publishing hospital by hospital data for MRSA, it is free to do so and there will be no objection from me. However, it is important that the data are reliable. Unreliable data are no good to anybody and can be harmful. The role of the patient advocacy service will be to advocate for patients generally and individually. I do not intend it to...

Other Questions: Health Services Reports (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for the question. I am conscious of the personal tragedies of the families at the centre of these sad incidents and do not want to intrude on their privacy. I offer my sincerest sympathy to the families involved who have suffered such a sad loss. As Minister for Health, I do not have access to any patient's medical records, report or medical information which is...

Other Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am strongly of the view that any new patient advocacy service should be set up independent of the HSE from the outset. For this reason I removed reference to the establishment of an interim patient advocacy agency from the service plan for 2015. My view has been supported by the recent recommendation made in the HIQA investigation report on services at Portlaoise hospital on the need...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I do not believe people are deliberately creating waiting lists to pressurise people into paying out of pocket or to take up health insurance. Health insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions, so it would not cover it anyway in such cases. Quite frankly, waiting lists sometimes are badly managed. One has to drill down into them to really understand them. When I looked at some...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Reducing long waiting times for hospital treatment is a key priority for the Government. To comply with the commitment which I announced in late January of a maximum permissible waiting time of 18 months by the end of June and 15 months by year end, the Health Service Executive, HSE, has put in place specific measures to address waiting lists more efficiently in collaboration with acute...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to understand the figures. The higher figure will always be high. It is anyone who is waiting for an outpatient appointment for any period. That includes people who are waiting two weeks or two days. As health services expand, more consultants are appointed and more clinics are established, that number will always be high. That is the way it works. What we do need to...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is a combination of factors. There are inappropriate referrals. Ask any speech and language therapist, any physiotherapist or any consultant and they will tell one about inappropriate referrals, namely people who should not have been sent to them in the first place. This happens, unfortunately, and needs to be better addressed. I hope the e-referral system over the next several years...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Reducing long waiting times for hospital treatment is a key priority for the Government. Last January, taking into account current pressures on acute hospital services, I directed the HSE to ensure maximum permissible waiting times for inpatient and day case treatment, or a first consultant-led outpatient appointment, of 18 months by mid-year and 15 months by year end. In February, shortly...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am not aware of any particular abuse that has been identified. If the Deputy wants to write to me with the details and evidence, I will certainly have the matter investigated, as is always the case. As this initiative has only started in the past couple of weeks, it is too soon, obviously, to have it audited. It is necessary. Having people waiting so long for outpatient appointments and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is a side point but it is important to get the facts right, in particular if some of this is going to be covered in local media. Approximately one in six new patients are diagnosed with cancer on referral, not half. What Deputy Halligan is including there are people who were already diagnosed previously and are returning to clinics.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I wish to be clear on that. It is not that half of people referred have prostate cancer. That would never be the case for a cancer clinic. What has happened is University Hospital Waterford needed more staff and it was hard to get the staff. The private sector has had to be used in the interim and will be used if needs be. I do not like doing that but I have no qualms doing it if it...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I said we appointed one urologist already and another will start next month. In view of the growing population and the fact that there will be more older men every year for the next 20 years or 30 years - I will get there at some point - we will need to increase the number of urologists every year. It may well be the case that we need to double the number of urologists in the next five to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am strongly of the view that any new patient advocacy service should be set up independently of the HSE from the outset. For this reason, the HSE removed reference to the establishment of an interim patient advocacy agency from its service plan for 2015. My view has been supported by the recent recommendation made in the HIQA investigation report on services at Portlaoise hospital on the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: No. The Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had no role to play in the decision, rather it was a policy decision taken by me. The plan before I took office was to establish a patient safety agency as a sub-agency of the HSE and the post of CEO of that sub-agency was advertised. The CEO would have been an employee of the HSE. I decided,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: How?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Patient Safety Agency Establishment (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am very glad that we agree that a patient advocacy service is needed and that it should be independent. It is not the case that HIQA's recommendations are ignored, as significant numbers are implemented. That has been the case, particularly in matters around hospital hygiene. The reports show that we now have the lowest MRSA rates in years. For example the rates for Clostridium...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: University Hospital Waterford has experienced problems in recent months in achieving the target set by the National Cancer Control Programme for rapid access to prostate clinics. The target is that 90% of patients be seen within 20 days of receipt of a referral. A number of actions have been taken by the hospital to improve the timelines of access for patients to prostate cancer services....

Written Answers — Department of Health: Patient Data (28 May 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The HSE Performance Report for February 2015 did not contain data for symptomatic breast cancer services for University Hospital Waterford due to data collection issues. However, the relevant data has since been collated and data from Waterford will be included in future reports. University Hospital Waterford has seen 100% of patients triaged as urgent with the two week target timeframe...