Results 301-320 of 352 for 5 million speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospitals Funding (1 Dec 2016)

Simon Harris: ...in public hospitals, something the Deputy would probably support. The Health Insurance Authority has identified that payment by private health insurers to public hospitals increased by €144 million between 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. In 2016 hospitals were set income targets of €50 million or 5% over the normal year on year growth associated with increased activity. This...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Accident and Emergency Departments (1 Dec 2016)

Simon Harris: ...emergency care demand. My Department, working with the HSE, has been driving a range of measures to improve patient ED experience times. Following the formation of Government an additional €40 million was provided to assist in the management of winter pressures. Utilising this additional funding the HSE developed the Winter Initiative Plan 2016 – 2017 which was published...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Accident and Emergency Departments (1 Dec 2016)

Simon Harris: Increased demand for health services is evident across acute hospital services this year with a 5% increase in ED attendances and a 4% increase in inpatient and day-case activity to end October 2016, in comparison with the same period in 2015. Trolley numbers have been high in November due to increased ED attendances, greater incidence of infection in several hospitals and a high rate of...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (16 Nov 2016)

Simon Harris: ...be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to have this opportunity to address the House on the Second Stage of the Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was published last week. Over 2 million people in Ireland have private health insurance. Health insurance in Ireland is community rated. This means when someone purchases health insurance, their age, gender and health status...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (10 Nov 2016)

Simon Harris: .... I was struck by this when I visited the building. I realise plans are under way for a new emergency department and staff will be moving in to it early next year. We have opened a further 53 beds as part of this year's winter initiative. I will ask Liam Woods to comment on that in a moment. We are going to carry out a bed capacity review in general for the country. I am keen for...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disease Management (2 Nov 2016)

Simon Harris: ...their concerns with their GP in the first instance. Lyme borreliosis was made been statutorily notifiable in Ireland by the Infectious Diseases (Amendment Regulations) Regulations 2011 (S.I. no 452 of 2011). The notifiable entity is Lyme neuroborreliosis, the more severe neurological form of Lyme borreliosis. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) of the HSE collects and...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products Prices (19 Oct 2016)

Simon Harris: ...which will ensure that the prices of medicines in Ireland continue to reduce in line with price reductions across the reference countries. This Agreement is expected to deliver savings of €600 million from IPHA companies, with an additional €150 million expected to be delivered by non-IPHA suppliers of branded medicines. The implementation of generic substitution and...

Ceisteanna - Questions (resumed) - Priority Questions: Accident and Emergency Departments (18 Oct 2016)

Simon Harris: ...is already significant experience in using the services of such hospitals to assist in addressing lengthy waiting times for scheduled care. An example of such collaboration is that this year €20 million is being allocated to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, rising to €55 million in 2018. I envisage the NTPF utilising both the public and the private hospitals to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Accident and Emergency Services Provision (18 Oct 2016)

Simon Harris: To date, the HSE has reported a year-on-year increase of approximately 5% in Emergency Department attendances. Despite increased demand, there has been a decrease of almost 5% in numbers of patients waiting on trolleys. My Department, working with the HSE, has been driving a range of integrated initiatives to alleviate overcrowding in EDs, including: reducing attendances by expanding...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (11 Oct 2016)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 475 and 493 together. In the past ten years the safety of the HPV vaccine has been reviewed frequently by many international bodies including the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US. These Committees have continually...

Questions on Proposed Legislation (6 Oct 2016)

Simon Harris: ...Deputy. We have already seen an increase this year in staffing numbers in our health services in terms of both nursing and medical staff when compared with last year. We have also provided €40 million to deal with what the Deputy describes as the trolley crisis. Numbers on trolleys are still high but they are down approximately 5% on last year. Some of that €40 million in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Health Issues: Minister for Health (29 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: ...budget to cover deficits. In July of this year, in an effort to properly fund our health service and to break this cycle of Supplementary Estimates, the Government provided an additional €500 million funding to health in 2016. This level of funding also provides me, as Minister for Health, with the opportunity to address some immediate issues facing patients, such as investment in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Health Issues: Minister for Health (29 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: ...need to do much more. There is a medicines management group within the HSE and it has a number of ongoing projects. There is a potential saving with regard to oral nutritional supplements of €5 million per year and there is ongoing monitoring of preferred drugs and prescribing trends. It is continuing to review high-tech medicines used in assisted reproductive technologies and is...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: ...Purchase Fund (NTPF) figures have shown a continued increase in the number of patients waiting for appointments and/or procedures within the health system in 2016. There are currently over 530,000 patients waiting for an outpatient appointment, an in-patient or daycase procedure as of end of August 2015. As such it is clear that the health system is currently dealing with a considerable...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Delays (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: ...the number of patients on waiting lists to be implemented in the latter half of 2016. Key actions include clinical validation of patients waiting for an in-patient or daycase procedure for over 15 months, focusing on providing procedures for the 5% of patients on inpatient and daycase waiting lists for over 18 months and driving process improvement at Hospital Group and individual...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointments Status (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: ...the number of patients on waiting lists to be implemented in the latter half of 2016. Key actions include clinical validation of patients waiting for an in-patient or day-case procedure for over 15 months, focusing on providing procedures for the 5% of patients on inpatient and day-case waiting lists for over 18 months and driving process improvement at Hospital Group and individual...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Public Health Policy (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1235 to 1240, inclusive, together. The rise in antimicrobial resistance is universally recognised at global, European and national levels, including Ireland, as one of the greatest potential threats to human and animal health with possible serious consequences for public health, animal welfare and the agriculture and food sectors. There is international...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Harris: ...results from the Irish data concur with those observed in Finland and Sweden. All of the studies confirm a strong association between the pandemic vaccine and the development of narcolepsy in the 5 to 19 year age group. However, this is not evidence of causation and further studies are required in order to seek explanations of the increased risk of narcolepsy in children and...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: National Maternity Hospital (15 Jun 2016)

Simon Harris: I share the absolute frustration of the Senator. He is correct; about €5 million has been spent on the project already by a Government of which he was a part, because as a country we want to deliver this landmark project. Let me be very clear: this is a priority project for me. I have invested a significant amount of time in this project since becoming Minister for Health because we...

Written Answers — Department of Health: General Practitioner Services Provision (2 Jun 2016)

Simon Harris: ...(GMS) and other publicly funded health sector contracts involving GPs. A priority of these discussions will be the inclusion of chronic disease management for patients. Funding of €13.5 million from the 2016 HSE Primary Care budget was held within the Department of Health for GP contract developments, which includes rural practices, access to diagnostics and minor surgery,...