Results 26,941-26,960 of 46,081 for speaker:Simon Harris

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I know. The Deputy asked about the Taoiseach's comments and now he is asking about the comments of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan. I assure him that if the Minister gave that commitment it is obviously true. I will follow up with the HSE and provide the Deputy with the information he requires.

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I hear the Deputy and I assure him that trying to get this right is taking up a considerable amount of my time. It is appropriate that it should, it is an important, sensitive issue. We will get it right and put a comprehensive consultation process in place and I will be happy to meet the three Laois Deputies on this shortly.

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: Improving waiting times for hospital treatment is a key commitment in the programme for Government. In 2018, €50 million was allocated to the national treatment purchase fund, NTPF, to provide treatment for patients. In recent weeks, I published the inpatient/day case action plan which outlines the combined impact of HSE and NTPF activity in 2018. It projects a reduction in the...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: Deputy Moynihan's comments are fair. The NTPF is used to drive down waiting times, which is an appropriate way to use it. We will get offers of treatment to anyone waiting over nine months this year which is a significant improvement on which we need to build further. The Deputy is correct. What we need to do in the longer term is elective only hospitals, one for Cork, one for Dublin and...

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Regulation (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I had an excellent meeting with FACS Forum Ireland and I heard directly from parents whose children have been impacted by foetal anticonvulsant syndrome. I believe parents have been let down. As the Deputy said, it is not just an issue in Ireland and this is why the European Medicines Agency, EMA, has looked at the matter. There are three issues, which I discussed with the FACS Forum...

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Regulation (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: This is not an issue just of today or yesterday. Unlike how it has been dealt with in the past by the Department of Health I have taken a very personal interest in the matter. I have met with FACS Forum Ireland and I heard what they have had to say. I have made three very clear commitments to them, the first of which is how we make sure this does not happen, going forward; appropriate...

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Stanley for asking this very important question. I will commence a consultation process, but I am going to get it right unlike the so-called consultation processes of the past that the people of the midlands and Portlaoise clearly felt, with some justifiable reason, have been inadequate in not listening or engaging with all of the appropriate stakeholders, including concerns I...

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: The Taoiseach is correct. If I believed that the draft plan and the consultation had been appropriate then we surely would not be in this place. I do not believe the consultation was adequate and I do not believe there was appropriate engagement. The reason I do not believe it is because the people of Portlaoise are telling me this very clearly. Deputy Stanley, Deputy Sean Fleming and the...

Other Questions: Emergency Departments (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Calleary for raising this issue. I had an opportunity to visit Mayo University Hospital a number of months ago and to meet the management and staff there. I am aware of the issues with the physical size of the emergency department. Despite the best efforts of the management and staff, which the Deputy rightly acknowledged, the emergency department is not large enough for the...

Other Questions: Emergency Departments (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: The Deputy's analysis of the situation is correct. The current emergency department was designed to meet a capacity flow of approximately 25,000 patients per annum but the figure for attendances last year reached over 37,000, according to the figures available. As is the case in much of our health service, the infrastructure was built for a much smaller population. That is why I...

Other Questions: Emergency Departments (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: With regard to modular build in general, the Department and I will have to make a number of decisions quite shortly on two things. The first is assessing what sites are appropriate for modular builds, that is, can physically contain modular builds, and where they can work from an engineering and layout point of view, which lay people such as myself are not familiar with. A body of work is...

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Regulation (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. I had an excellent meeting with FACS Forum Ireland two or three weeks ago in Leinster House. A number of Deputies had requested the meeting. I met FACS Forum Ireland with representatives of my Department and the HSE. Sodium valproate is a medicine licensed for use in Ireland to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, and is marketed in...

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: Of course I am delighted to give Deputy Breathnach that assurance. Everything all of us want to do in healthcare is to improve patient outcomes. That has to be at the absolute centre of what we do . As Deputy Breathnach knows very well, cardiovascular disease remains the commonest cause of death in Ireland. One of the ways we must address it is through prevention, with population-based...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Treatment Purchase Fund (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I have outlined to the Deputy how we are using the capacity that is available in the private hospital sector while building up the capacity in the public health sector. I would much rather be able to have adequate capacity in the public health service but it is not possible to bring all of that capacity onstream overnight. I agree with the Deputy in regard to wanting to remove private...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Treatment Purchase Fund (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I believe elective-only hospitals are the way to go and could have a real impact, as I know the Deputy does. We have seen this used in Scotland with very significant success. Scotland had very long waiting times and managed to reduce that substantially by purchasing what, ironically, was a former private hospital and turning it into an elective-only hospital. I have funding to deliver...

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for the important question. I can assure him the HSE has advised there are no current plans to reconfigure the cardiology services in County Louth and the north-east region which are currently provided in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, with consultants with cross-site commitment in the Mater Hospital. In addition, vascular surgeons from Beaumont Hospital provide...

Other Questions: Hospital Services (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I will be more than happy to take the Deputy up on his invitation to meet those professionals and I will be in touch with him to arrange that. I understand he has had a particular interest for a long number of years in cardiac rehabilitation services and concerns around the potential shift of after-care services from a hospital to a community setting, as he has outlined. The policy...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Admissions (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I realise that fully, and the Deputy knows from our detailed discussions, both in one-on-one meetings that we have had in his capacity as Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and in my public actions and comments, that I fully recognise it. Mentioning Storm Emma is not about making an excuse, but about recognising what front-line staff and management tell me, which is that the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Admissions (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Admissions (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: We are going to deliver the Sláintecare report. As the Deputy knows, I have three big asks and projects that I had to bring to the Government for approval, and on which I had to work with colleagues in other Departments to make sure they are backed up by significant resources. One concerns the capacity report on capital. Health has been starved of capital for years, even during the...