Results 37,981-38,000 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I would have to see how it calculated the figure of 579 but the numbers I have seen are not a million miles away from that. In terms of the figures I have been talking to people about, it is about how we can get up to about 500 ICU beds. I guess it depends on time. I could look at the detail of the ICU situation. I am confident that we are putting in as many next year as the system feels...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I asked yesterday, in anticipation that the Deputy might raise this, for the most up-to-date note from the Department to be able to share it with him today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I will send the note to the Deputy after the meeting. The scientific review has been completed and it advises that we should put the controlled access programme in place for patients with one of the three conditions of which the Deputy will be aware. The expert reference group then developed clinical guidelines for the programme. The impact of an amendment to Schedule 1 of the misuse of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Not on that one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: No, not all of that. This is an update on that. I will furnish the Deputy with a detailed note.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Senator. The experience as outlined by his constituent is just not satisfactory at all. Nobody should have to go through that. If I run out of time, I will provide a more detailed written answer. As to the emergency department and the maternity unit, the project design team has requested an assessment of the feasibility, as the Senator said, of the inclusion of a women and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Senator very much for her question. I will start by recognising the work that student nurses are doing. They are on educational placements as part of their degree programmes, are working damn hard and are doing it in a healthcare system where everyone is working damn hard. The system is under enormous pressure. In the first wave of the pandemic, when there was real fear and we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: On the second issue, I will need to take a look and revert to the Deputy, so I will respond just to the first one now. I hope she will have seen in the budget a serious commitment to Sláintecare. There are many different factors, one of which is capacity. We just need more of everything and there is a big commitment in that regard. The second is configuration, so there will be a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: That is fair. Let me instead say "post Covid".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, the budgets are the key.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I will hand over to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, shortly. The first point to make is that it is not three Departments, it is one Department. It is the Department of Health and we have mental health, Healthy Ireland, disability, homelessness and addiction and many other areas. The Ministers of State, Deputies Feighan, Rabbitte and Butler, and I work together and there is joined-up...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: It is a really important question. It cuts to the heart of the matter because it is not just about the out-of-hours service. It is about general practice and making sure general practice is fully supported, funded, invested in and configured properly right across the country, including in the Shannon area and, obviously, in Clare. There are a few things we are doing in terms of Covid. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: There is no doubt it is awful for anyone who finds themselves in that situation. Can I undertake to get a detailed briefing note to the Deputy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: It sounds like the Deputy is in communication with the group. If he would convey to the group that if they, either directly to me or through him, want to engage and would like an update on progress made, we will certainly facilitate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, fire ahead.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Deputy Durkan has encapsulated the entire challenge in healthcare right now. It includes resumption of services and expansion of services according to Sláintecare and universal healthcare, areas such as mental health, disability, CAMHS, Covid, etc., that need particular attention and are getting great leadership from the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler, Feighan and Rabbitte. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I hear the Deputy. What we want to try to find post level 5 is a situation where people are all following the basics, as the Deputy said, and then we want to find whatever the minimum additional restrictions required are to keep the virus down. To the Deputy's point, there is very strong anecdotal evidence, with data now emerging to back it up, that a mixture of congregation and alcohol in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: There is not meant to be any traffic on the roads so the Senator should have flown up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Covid-19 and Review of Budget 2021: Minister for Health (4 Nov 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to the 60-bed ward block at University Hospital Limerick, I am delighted to say works were completed just a few days ago on 30 October. We are expecting final sign-off now so once the three 20-bed inpatient wards in the new buildings are stocked with consumables and given a final clean we expect them to be ready to be made available. It is really good news for everybody there. ...