Results 4,361-4,380 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: Overall clinical activity in our acute hospitals is ahead of target by 3.4% and this pattern is likely to continue until the end of the year. When inpatient and day cases are combined, acute hospitals have treated 33,000 more patients to date in 2009 than during the same period in 2008. Outpatient activity is also 3% ahead of target. Hospitals must deliver their services within budget and...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: When Deputy Reilly was in Tallaght yesterday, I do not know whether he met the incoming chief executive officer designate, Professor Conlon. If he did, I am sure Professor Conlon made him aware of his plans, particularly, but not exclusively, with regard to orthopaedics. Tallaght Hospital has 11 orthopaedic surgeons, which is a large number by any standard for any hospital. The waiting...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: They are not massaging the figures. They are accurate verifiable figures and I invite the Deputy to meet representatives of the National Treatment Purchase Fund or invite representatives to come before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children to discuss the significant progress that has been made. At a meeting with the NTPF last week, I discussed whether a person should remain...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: I invite the Deputy to read the OECD publication today which shows the significant improvements we have made in Ireland in health, life expectancy and cancer treatment. It is an independent analysis which shows that, over the past decade, life expectancy has increased faster in Ireland than in any other EU country. Some of the cases the Deputy discussed had already been brought to my...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: The Deputy may be referring to recent media reports regarding an application before Sligo County Council to rezone land which would permit a planning application to be made in respect of a private health facility. The reports state that such a facility may provide certain medical services, including oncology. It is not clear whether the facility will ever be established but I want to make...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: As the Deputy is aware, patient safety is a priority for me and that is why I established the patient safety commission. All the reform taking place in acute hospitals is with a view to their meeting minimum standards for licensing in 2012 and 2013. As I stated previously here and at committee meetings, if we had the legislation and pressed the green button in the morning, many of the...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: As I stated on previous occasions, I can only do so when we have a legislative way of doing so and we cannot do that in advance of having licensing, authorisation or accreditation. Some of the misdiagnoses that have come to public attention occurred in both the public and private sectors, in services that are organised around extremely small volumes of patients and where the critical mass of...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: The question relates to Sligo and I presume it arose on foot of Fintan O'Toole's article in respect of a meeting of Sligo County Council. It is my view that people would be extremely foolish to invest resources in a facility which could not deal with the volume of patients required to qualify for licensing and to meet the relevant standards.

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: The HSE sought expressions of interest in December 2007 and July 2008 for the provision of primary care centres for primary care teams. Negotiations with interested parties proceeded in respect of 163 locations. Letters of intent have issued in respect of approximately 80 of these locations. Of those 80 locations, one centre has opened in Letterkenny, seven centres are due to open by the...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: The significance of primary care teams has nothing to do with buildings or new facilities, even though there are many of both. These teams involve health care professionals working differently together around patients. As stated previously, I recently met a health care nurse who has reduced, by half of one working day a week, the amount of time she spends seeking to make contact with...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: No, we have not been negotiating-----

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: There are some people who are not happy with the terms that have been put to them. These individuals have come to see me and they have probably also visited the Deputy. Some arrangements have not been concluded but I am not in a position to inform the Deputy with regard to the different stages at which they stand. I informed him that 80 centres will open next year and that 350 doctors will...

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: Perhaps the Deputy does not understand the law.

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: Letters of intent have issued in respect of 80 different centres. That is a considerable number.

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: Many contracts have been signed.

Hospital Services. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: Several contracts have been signed. I informed the Deputy that 80 centres will open next year. Is he of the view that contracts were not signed in respect of these?

Health Service Staff. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 37 and 47 together. The recruitment of a new chief executive officer is a matter for the board of the HSE, as are the internal governance structures of the organisation. However, I can confirm that certain changes are being introduced in the management structures of the HSE to enable it to better manage and deliver hospital and community services in a more...

Health Service Staff. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: In response to the last question, the Minister for Finance will make announcements about public service numbers in the course of his budget speech tomorrow. If the changes in the health service suggested last week, the five over seven, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. day, redeployment and flexibility can become the norm, as most people seem prepared to accept, they will have a major impact on the capacity...

Health Service Staff. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: -----particularly as we seek to integrate community and hospital services in a more orderly fashion than ever before. We want to move staff from providing the service in the hospital to providing it in the community and redeployment within a reasonable geographic radius provides that opportunity. One if not two of Professor Drumm's advisers have already left the HSE. The contracts of...

Health Service Staff. (8 Dec 2009)

Mary Harney: The Minister for Finance is responsible for the public service. That is factually correct. Of course we can reduce numbers within the HSE and I have said before, including last week, that the intention is to reduce the number by 8,000 but recruit back 2,000, making a net reduction of 6,000. We want to recruit consultants, specialist nurses and health care therapists and other specialists...