Results 26,221-26,240 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Other Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy will be aware, the economic crisis necessitated significant reductions in health service expenditure in recent years. Notwithstanding the difficult economic climate, a range of new services have been introduced in the south east in the past five years, which have been of benefit to those in County Wexford who are affected by substance misuse issues. The additional services...

Other Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The question the Deputy asked related to cuts to funding to drugs and alcohol treatment in County Wexford. Had I been aware that he wanted to raise mental health services more broadly in the south east, I would have prepared for the question a bit better. I am informed that the 24-hour service for the south east operates from Waterford and that Wexford is catered for from there but also by...

Other Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: As far as I understand, people can be seen in the community and from there be referred to the specialist centre in Waterford if that is what is best for them. It is worth pointing out, and I hope this will not be taken up wrong, that there are such things as psychiatric emergencies. Provision can be made, using either emergency ambulances or intermediate care vehicles to transfer patients to...

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The figure of 400,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments probably involves a good deal of double counting. It includes people waiting to see a number of consultants for the same condition. Deputies should bear in mind that it also includes routine appointments and people who are waiting one week or perhaps two or three weeks for appointments. It is not that everyone in that figure...

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Inevitably in health any time we provide a new service, it generates a new waiting list. That is one of the paradoxes of health care. What we are trying to do is set minimum targets and minimum acceptable limits. Even they are going to be difficult to reach.

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I reiterate the fact that the figure of 400,000 includes people who are waiting for routine appointments for a few weeks. I am focusing on waiting times. When we talk to individual patients they talk about how long they have been waiting, not whether they are placed 1,647 on the list. They want to talk about how long they are waiting. That is why the target should be about waiting times....

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: There are many different factors that contribute to trolley waits. Some of those factors vary from hospital to hospital. While there are difficulties recruiting certain specialties of consultants and certain categories of non-consultant hospital doctors and nurses, recruitment was not a major factor in the difficulties faced by the emergency departments in recent months. Indeed, staffing...

Other Questions: Hospital Staff Recruitment (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: The figures Deputy Coppinger is using include people who are not on trolleys and who are not in emergency Departments. If Deputy Coppinger does not believe me, she should go to www.inmo.ie/Trolley_Ward_Watch. It will explain exactly how those figures are calculated. Specifically, in Connolly Memorial Hospital the figures include people who are put on the day ward or the surgical day ward...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: That cannot continue for the next couple of months. It seems that one of the major factors was the fact that there were so many delayed discharges, which was reducing bed capacity. That is why the additional money is being provided for community beds under the fair deal scheme, to free hospitals of the current level of delayed discharges in order that they can operate more effectively....

Other Questions: HSE Waiting Lists (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Improving waiting lists for scheduled care is a key priority for me and the Government. Taking into account current pressures on acute hospital services, I have put in place a target that by mid-year nobody will wait more than 18 months for inpatient or day case treatment or an outpatient appointment, with a further reduction to a waiting time of no more than 15 months by year end. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: For the first time in seven years, the overall budget for health services has increased. The HSE will have €635 million more available in 2015 than was provided in the original Estimate for 2014. In addition, a minimum savings target of €130 million has been set in areas such as procurement, drugs and agency costs in 2015 and, in a welcome new development, further savings that...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Budgets vary from hospital group to hospital group and from individual hospital to individual hospital. All hospital groups and hospitals have had an increase in their budget allocation in 2015 over 2014. What we have not done is allow them to incorporate their entire overrun last year into their base for this year. This is very different. We cannot have a situation where hospitals...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: No-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: They are included in the report which clearly the Deputy has not read.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is clear to me that somebody compiled a briefing note for the Deputy, but he has not read the HSE's PAR for January.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: If he had read it, he would know that attendances at emergency departments were down in January compared to January in the previous year. The numbers of emergency and elective admissions were down. Despite this, there were problems with overcrowding. There were additional staff and an additional spend. That is not acceptable.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to point out that the total cross-departmental budget for the drugs programme was reduced consistently throughout the period of the recession. It was reduced in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and again in 2013. In 2014 in was increased from €237.5 million to €240 million and this year it is being increased again. When we had a dedicated Minister of State with...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: It is true that positions have not been filled in a number of areas across health, but this is not because of a lack of finance or effort by the front-line managers involved. We have moved from a situation where for years, all of the effort involved paring down staff, so when one then tells managers to start hiring a lot of people it creates difficulties. We are finding it difficult to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Drug Treatment Programmes (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: I am advised by the HSE that there are three addiction counsellor posts vacant in the Dublin region. Recently, these positions were offered to candidates on the relevant HSE national recruitment service panel. As no candidate accepted the offer of work in the Dublin area, a recruitment competition specifically to fill these vacancies is under consideration by the HSE. The ending of the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Accommodation Provision (16 Apr 2015)

Leo Varadkar: Reducing Emergency Department overcrowding is a priority issue for me and for the Government. All hospitals, including Beaumont, have escalation plans to manage not only patient flow but also patient safety in a responsive, controlled and planned way that supports and ensures the delivery of optimum patient care. I am informed that Beaumont Hospital has undertaken a number of initiatives...