Results 27,121-27,140 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (2 May 2018)

Simon Harris: As this is a service matter it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (2 May 2018)

Simon Harris: The Minor Injuries Unit at Louth County Hospital was developed in 2010 to provide rapid treatment of minor injury patients aged 14 years and over. This service is available to the people of Louth 7 days per week from 9:00am to 8:00pm. As the query raised is a service matter, I have also asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly with any further information.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospitals Funding (2 May 2018)

Simon Harris: As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to you directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Commencement of Legislation (2 May 2018)

Simon Harris: A number of technical drafting issues have come to light in relation to Parts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. The implications of these issues are being explored by officials in my Department and the Office of the Attorney General, and as these discussions are ongoing, I do not wish to pre-empt the outcome by citing specific details. I would be happy to arrange a...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Commissions of Investigation (2 May 2018)

Simon Harris: The Commission of Investigation (certain matters relative to a disability service in the South East and related matters) (the Farrelly Commission) is an independent statutory Commission of Investigation. It commenced its investigations in May 2017 and its work is ongoing. The first phase of the Commission's work is to investigate the role of public authorities in the care and protection of...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputies on all sides of the House for contributing to this constructive and very important debate and questions and answers session. Regardless of any statutory or other inquiry that we set up, it is very important that the women of Ireland saw that the Oireachtas has spent so many hours rightly discussing this issue in a constructive fashion to determine how the facts will be...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I have expressed my view on the management of CervicalCheck. I do not want the priority of my energies or, I would suggest, all of our energies to be placed in who should leave their job now. There is a time and place in regard to accountability. I want the priority in CervicalCheck to be on getting the answers, getting the information, contacting the women and getting the guidance up on...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I want to move towards mandatory open disclosure. I am sure it will come out in the review that we could have had a situation where doctors were replacing information on files to be given to a woman at her next appointment but given the lapse of such a serious period of time, clearly women were not told that information and this is not acceptable to anyone. I would like mandatory open...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Healy for his comments, which I note. I have clear views in terms of how we need to reform the HSE, including putting in place a board with real powers, which it would take me longer than the 27 seconds available to me to outline. I am moving ahead with many elements of the Sláintecare programme and I would be happy to discuss that with the Deputy on another occasion.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am sorry, that is a very important question. The Government has not ruled out redress. It first needs to ascertain facts. There is a group of people in respect of whom an arm of the State had information that was not given to them. In my view, this is wrong. Whether it is legally wrong is neither here nor there. We need to look at how we can support those people. The Government will...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I do not have a number and am not going to give a number to the Oireachtas that could be false. I think we all had the view when we got up this morning that every case of cervical cancer in the cancer registry had been notified to CervicalCheck but that is not the case, based on information given to me before I came in here a few hours ago. I have been here since and have not been able to...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I absolutely agree it was unacceptable. Was that message sent today?

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: This is the information on the CervicalCheck website this evening:Q4: Can I get a repeat cervical screening, before my next test is due? The Minister for Health has announced that women can have a repeat cervical screening if they wish to do so. We will set this up shortly and will post details on cervicalcheck.ie as soon as possible. Please bear in mind that cervical screening tests cannot...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am fully committed to open disclosure. A patient should always have a right to be provided with honest, open and prompt communication. That is already underpinned in the medical practitioners' code of conduct which is not exactly a flimsy document but I accept it does not happen on the ground and we have seen that in recent days. The idea was that in a Civil Liability (Amendment) Act...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I received the latest information before coming into the Chamber: 113 women had been contacted and offered appointments. I want every woman to be contacted very quickly and will provide a further update on the numbers tomorrow. I understand there may be difficulty contacting some people. I am not excusing that.

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I see validity in a HIQA inquiry. It has a track record, has built up significant expertise and has statutory underpinning. Under section 9(2) of the Health Act 2007 it has done a lot of good work, when it had those "teeth", for example, on the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, and the death of Savita Halappanavar. In respect of Portlaoise it not only produced a report but was then...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I am informed by the Department that in the US a one-year smear is recommended but that is because it does not have an organised population-based health programme like ours. Many people in the US can be screened too often. It is similar to what happened here in the bad old days before we had a population-based programme, with some people being screened too often and some not screened often...

National Cervical Screening Programme: Statements (1 May 2018)

Simon Harris: I have no access to that information. It is a question we could usefully explore. Why did some doctors decide they should tell the women and others put it on the file. When the serious incident management team was sent into CervicalCheck there was an expectation that the majority of doctors would have disclosed. I recall saying publicly in those days that expectation was not good enough in...