Results 40,761-40,780 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Arising from the recommendation by the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare that private activity be progressively removed from public hospitals and that an independent impact analysis of the separation be conducted, an Independent Review Group (IRG) was established to examine the removal of private practice from public acute hospitals. The Independent Review Group,...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The information requested by the Deputy is currently being collated by officials in my Department and will be provided to the Deputy directly as soon as it becomes available.

Written Answers — Department of Health: HSE Reviews (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I propose to take Questions Nos. 244 and 247 together. A clear governance and accountability framework was identified as a key building block of Sláintecare by the Committee on the Future of Healthcare. As part of its recommendations in this area, the Committee called for the HSE to become a more strategic and patient-focused ‘national centre’ carrying out national level...

Written Answers — Department of Health: HSE Reviews (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy on this matter.

Written Answers — Department of Health: HSE Reviews (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Following the announcement by the outgoing Government in July 2019 of the geographies for six new regional health areas, a joint action programme co-sponsored by the HSE, the Department of Health and the Sláintecare Programme Implementation Office was initiated to commence work on the reconfiguration of the health service and development of Regional Health Areas. A draft programme plan...

Written Answers — Department of Health: HSE Reviews (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Central to improving population health and reducing inequalities is the ability to estimate a populations’ health needs and use this information to design, deliver and evaluate services that meet those needs, within the resources available. One policy measure used to address observed differences between population profiles and promote equitable distribution of available funding is...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Funding (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: There have been notable advances made in eHealth in recent times. As part of the COVID-19 emergency response eHealth technologies were deployed at pace and scale to support healthcare workers. The Contact Tracing App was developed to complement manual contact tracing, informing of the spread of Covid-19 symptoms and providing a trusted source of news, information and guidance. Telehealth...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Expenditure (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Set out in the table below is the health expenditure by the Health Service Executive 2017 to June 2020. by funding source. Between 2017 and 2020 the level of funding provided by the exchequer increased approximate €2.7bn or 20%. My Department does not have data in relation to private insurance expenditure on health and social care services outside of the public system. Nor do we...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: As committed to in the Action Plan for 2019, Sláintecare has developed proposals for multi-annual capital and current funding, including a transition fund, to support health care reform. Following Budget 2020, the Sláintecare Programme Implementation Office have been resourced with a total of €45.5 million in 2020 (with an additional €50 million in 2021) in order to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: In response to the Sláintecare Report, the government approved the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy in July 2018. The Strategy sets out the actions to be taken in the first three years of the Sláintecare implementation process. The Sláintecare Programme Implementation Office was established in September 2018 with the initial task of reviewing and refining the strategy...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: There is no specific Cabinet Committee in relation to Sláintecare. Discussions of Sláintecare formed part of the Social Policy and Public Services Cabinet Committee B. Sláintecare was the topic of these meetings on two occasions on 11 April 2018 and 22 November 2018. In addition, updates on Sláintecare progress were provided to Cabinet Committee B throughout 2019. There...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The Health (Amendment) Act 2013, provided for the current public hospital statutory in-patient charge is €80 per night, subject to a maximum of €800 in any twelve consecutive months. There has be no change to the rate or application of the in-patient charge since its introduction from 1 January 2017. Removal of the current inpatient charge would cost approximately €30m...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Prescription charges were introduced to address the rising costs in the General Medical Services (GMS) scheme. The charge, which is set by regulation, has been varied on a number of occasions. The Health Services (Prescription charges) Regulations 2017 (SI 553/2017) reduced the charge to €2 per item for all eligible persons with a monthly limit of €20. A further amendment in...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS) monthly threshold has been varied a number of times over the years. The DPS threshold was last reduced by S.I. No. 59 of 2019 Health Services (Amendment) Regulations 2019 which came into effect on 1 April 2019 which reduced the monthly threshold to €124. S.I. No. 577 of 2017 Health Services (Drug Payment Scheme) Regulations 2017 which came into effect...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The Drug Payment Scheme (DPS), is aimed at individuals and families who do not have a medical card and normally would have to pay the full cost of their medication. It also applies to those who have a GP visit card. Anyone ordinarily resident in Ireland may apply to join this non means tested scheme. The monthly threshold has never been reduced exclusively for single households. It has...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: The HSE is currently rolling out a diagnostics plan that envisages a range of diagnostic/imaging services being provided across all Community Healthcare Organisations with the support of hospitals and private providers, with a particular focus on improving GP access to ultrasound. The Deputy may wish to note that in 2019, there were 67,000 ultrasound and 79,500 x-rays delivered via GP access...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: Progress continues to be made in implementing the Sláintecare plan to provide universal access to healthcare through the expansion of eligibility on a phased basis. On 25 June, the Government gave approval for the publication of the Health (General Practitioner Service and Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2020. This Bill provides, amongst other things, for the phased...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: There has been no specific allocation of funding to ensure universal primary care since the publication of the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy. However, funding for the provision of primary care services was increased in Budget 2020 in order to help deliver on the vision of Sláintecare. The NSP 2020 allocated approximately €1.08bn for primary care services...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: As the Deputy will be aware, Sláintecare is the ten-year all-party Oireachtas policy, which was adopted by Government in 2017. It sets out the vision to deliver a healthcare system for the population of Ireland. The plan aims to deliver a universal health service that offers the right care, in the right place, at the right time, by the right team with a priority focus on keeping people...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Sláintecare (23 Jul 2020)

Stephen Donnelly: As the Deputy will be aware, Sláintecare is the ten-year all-party Oireachtas policy setting out the vision to deliver a healthcare system for the population of Ireland. Sláintecare is about delivering a health and social care service that meets the needs of our population and attracts and retains the very best healthcare professionals, managers and staff. The plan is to deliver a...