Results 42,501-42,520 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospitals Winter Plan (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: How does the Chair want to do it?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospitals Winter Plan (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: We will all be aware of the severe overcrowding in our emergency departments. I am sure the Minister is aware of the case of a woman in her 80s who had to wait on a trolley in Limerick for four and a half days last week. Her daughter said that she was moved around and had to lie under a glove dispenser while people tried to get gloves. I think we can all agree that nobody wants to see so...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospitals Winter Plan (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister for his response. I want to put something to bed. I keep hearing him saying that the failures in healthcare today, the likes of which this country has never seen and cannot be seen anywhere else in Europe, are somehow the result of some beds being taken out of the system 15 years ago.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospitals Winter Plan (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: The reality is that under the most recent Fianna Fáil Government, the number of beds increased by well over 1,000. There were a small number of years when a few beds came out. Does the Minister believe that this is causing the current failures? He and his colleagues have been in government for nine years. They have almost had a decade in power. In the Minister's term alone, the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Action Plan (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: 30. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the scheduled care access plan 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41267/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Nursing Staff Data (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: 54. To ask the Minister for Health the number of unfilled nursing posts by hospital, including the hospitals currently precluded for any reasons from hiring nurses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41266/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Consultant Remuneration (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: 62. To ask the Minister for Health when he anticipates a full reversal of new entrant pay disparity for consultants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41265/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Paediatric Services (10 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: 80. To ask the Minister for Health the steps being taken to address the multi-year waiting times being experienced by children with special needs in County Wicklow that have been referred for treatment to a service (details supplied) and other service providers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41264/19]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Business of Joint Committee (Resumed) (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree there is more to be done on this. It is worth noting the HSE's response last week. I put its clarifying statement to it and stated that while it was regretting that there was confusion caused, it clearly instructed hospitals not to treat particular people, there is no confusion about that and it made a mistake, and asked would its representatives admit that they have made a mistake...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Business of Joint Committee (Resumed) (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not proposing that the committee goes any further with this issue. I am making the point that senior people in the system must give a full and clear acknowledgement, because that sends out the right message to everybody else. The HSE's response felt hedged. However, I am not saying that anything else needs to be done with that response.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Medical Council representatives for attending, their opening statement and their great work on the report. For nerds like me there are loads of facts and figures to get stuck into. Am I correct that, in 2016, a total of 948 doctors voluntarily left, in 2017, the figure increased to 1,054 and, in 2018, it increased to 1,453?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: It increased from approximately 950 to 1,050 to nearly 1,500. There was a substantial increase last year .

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Dr. Doyle is also a nerd. The obvious question this raises is whether this was a statistical blip. Is it because of some structural issue? Is there a perfectly reasonable explanation for such a vast increase in those leaving or is this a signal of something more serious such as a tipping point in the system with more doctors leaving at an exponential rate?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: That is not a statistical blip. The figure has gone from 550 steadily and rapidly upwards. In four years, we are at three times that figure. For every doctor who was leaving four years ago, there are now three doctors leaving.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: This is deeply worrying. We have a shortage of doctors in this country.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: We are more than 40% below the European average. We have the lowest level of hospital consultantsper capitain the developed world. For every doctor who was leaving four years ago, there are now three doctors leaving.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Dr. Doyle is probably very well placed to have a view on the top two or three issues. Obviously there are many issues and I imagine she could cite 100 different ones. From the data she has seen and the interviews the Medical Council of Ireland has conducted, are there two or three outstanding issues that are driving this very worrying increase in our doctors leaving?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Could Dr. Doyle say more about that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: It sounds horrific and it certainly matches what I and, I imagine, all the members of this committee have heard. It is deeply stupid as well in terms of trying to run a world-class public healthcare system. That toxic culture that Dr. Doyle has just described - who would want to work in that or come up through it? Is that a facet of medicine internationally or is it a facet of medicine in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (9 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Given that we are not particularly mean or nasty people relative to our American or Antipodean cousins, what is it about the Irish public healthcare system that is causing this? Is the same toxic culture reflected in private practice in Ireland, in the private hospitals?