Results 37,041-37,060 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: We will see them by the end of the year. I want to reach the point the Deputy is talking about. There is much talk about waiting lists and the number of people waiting. The Deputy's question is a much more important question: what are the waiting times? If 1 million people are waiting no more than a week, that is fine. The problem is that people are waiting too long. As a first step, we...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I do not know of the case of Elin who is awaiting an MRI scan. When I was appointed one of the first places I went was to Crumlin where I met the scoliosis team. This covers the situation for both Sophie and Elin. The hospital at Crumlin needs another MRI machine and the staff to operate it. The waiting list at Crumlin for urgent MRI scans under general anaesthetic for children is four...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: No new offer has been made. I am working towards fixing the new entrant pay inequality. There is no lesser offer on the table at the moment.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Which discussions is the Deputy asking about?
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Is it the new entrant pay inequality?
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: As quickly as possible. I raised this and pushed it as soon as I was appointed to the office. Along with Deputy Cullinane I addressed the conference and recommitted publicly to them. It is essential. It needs to be done very quickly. It is an all-of-Government decision because other groups are looking at this in the context of upcoming public sector pay talks. My intention is to move it...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I can only speak for myself. I cannot speak for an all-of-Government decision. If it were solely up to me, I would have unilaterally reversed it in full in July. That is when I would have done it. That is the priority I think it has.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes. I would have done it in the first week I was appointed. I looked into it immediately. It is an all-of-Government decision. Because there are wider pay considerations with upcoming pay talks, it was not possible at the time to do it. However, I consider it to be a very high priority. We are looking to do several good things as soon as possible. By as soon as possible, I do not mean...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I do not know the answer to that question. It would be part of the technical information that would be coming from the EMA post its decision, whichever way it goes, on the various vaccines.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I will speak about both the winter plan and next year's budget. The winter plan is a big plan worth €600 million, which makes it approximately 20 times bigger than previous winter plans. The budget for next year is the biggest funding package, but it is also the biggest set of targets in terms of new beds, new hires, community home care, etc. What we have done with the money is...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes, absolutely.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes, let me give the Deputy an example. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association came out in the past day or two and said there were 728 unfilled consultant posts. That is correct, in that there are not permanent full-time positions in those posts.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: There are a few. There are fixed-term contracts. For example, of the 3,446 posts that are currently filled, 2,680 are permanent, 520 are fixed-term contracts and 246 are specified-purpose contracts. There are actual vacant posts and then there are posts which are filled by temporary contracts or agency staff. What I want, and what I think we all want, is full-time people in those posts.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I have no doubt that there are, but the HSE is actively filling them with temporary staff where it can, as per the consultant contracts. The Deputy can be sure that on an ongoing basis there are other posts that could have temporary people in them.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I think it is being done. For example, agency nursing staff are being used right across the system. I would like a HSE where we never need agency staff or perhaps if there is a surge somewhere that one could bring in agency staff. What I want is safe staffing levels for nursing and midwifery so that the reliance on agency staff is reduced.
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: It depends on the different types of roles. If Deputy Durkan wishes, I will ask the HSE to revert to the Deputy with a note on that?
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: No. I do not think so. If we go back to when the report was published and when the implementation plan was published – I do not have the latter in front of me – if we were to pull that out and look at the Gantt charts and what was meant to happen by when, I imagine we would find that Sláintecare is behind in an awful lot of areas. If there is any silver lining within the...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I will get the Deputy a note on how many operations have happened this year, both in HSE and private hospitals. The NTPF puts out bids asking, say, who wants to perform 20 hip replacements or 100 cataract operations. Public and private hospitals can bid if they feel they have spare capacity or they want to ramp things up. Given the length of the waiting lists, I would like us to be more...
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan and I are working very closely on this. We have allocated sizable additional funds next year for exactly what the Deputy has outlined to help the providers and the residential care facilities. The waiting lists are too long. Again, during the Covid pandemic, many things were done that had never been done....
- Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 38 - Department of Health (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2020) Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I will.