Results 27,441-27,460 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

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...

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

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Shortall for the question. As the Deputy knows, the programme for Government commits to reducing waiting times for procedures in hospitals and to increase funding for the National Treatment Purchase Fund to deliver on this commitment. In the budget and Estimates for 2018, funding for the NTPF to treat public patients was increased to €50 million. The inpatient and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Respite Care Services Provision (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: Deputy Murphy O'Mahony will have to accept me as a substitute for the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, who is in New York for the signing of a UN convention. The Government is committed to providing services and supports for people with disabilities which will empower them to live independent lives, provide greater independence in accessing the services they choose, as well as...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Respite Care Services Provision (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: Not only do I see the need, I am determined we address it. We will provide 19,000 extra respite care nights this year. That is a large increase and has been welcomed by carers. However, they want to see the houses open and so do I. These houses will start to come on stream. We hope to be able to announce locations and target opening dates for all these houses in the coming weeks....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Respite Care Services Provision (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is correct. Every CHO will receive one new respite house or facility this year. For some that will involve capital works to upgrade existing facilities, while for others it will involve the procurement, purchase or even construction of a new respite care centre. That is why there are tender processes in some CHOs. So far, two houses have opened in Kerry and north County Dublin...

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

Simon Harris: I agree with the Deputy's analysis of the problem. It still beggars belief that we reduced the number of hospital beds in this country long before the troika arrived in town. I believe we can do much more in community and in primary care. Even as we do that, there is a clear, compelling and indisputable case that we need to provide more acute hospital beds. There will be certain things we...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: General Practitioner Contracts (19 Apr 2018)

Simon Harris: I appreciate the question raised by Deputy Donnelly and I am sure he appreciates the position I am in where I cannot negotiate on the floor of the House. I expect that we will be investing many millions more in general practice from 2019 and that we will be beginning to move post FEMPI in 2019 subject to us being able to agree a myriad of things we need to discuss. In any negotiation, both...