Results 4,661-4,680 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Services (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I can. We had a useful session yesterday. I might organise a briefing for members of the health committee who are interested as well. There is a lot of important work under way. As to the treatment abroad scheme or whatever it might be, we have been very clear with CHI in saying if it can find what our surgeons say is clinically appropriate care for the children, be that in Boston's...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for his question and acknowledge his ongoing work in this area, both in terms of the MCAP initially and the evolution of the programme. As he will be aware, we launched the medical cannabis access programme in 2021 for three conditions initially: refractory epilepsy, spasticity as a result of MS and nausea from chemotherapy. Since the inception of the programme, 55...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I accept the Deputy's position. It is a smaller number of people. We know from the clinicians that in many cases they are nervous about prescribing, even though the MCAP is in place for the unlicensed products. As I said, we will do a clinical review of the HRB findings. I am very open to expanding the programme. We will be led by the clinical view on this. What is interesting though...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cannabis for Medicinal Use (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I take the Deputy's point. I think that is all very fair. We have now a pathway to address exactly those issues. I will ask my officials to bear all of that in mind. The unit dealing with this will take note of our interaction this morning. The first question is whether we expand from the three conditions. I am very open to that. Second, what we need to do is engage with the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Services (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I join the Deputy in offering my condolences to Aoife's family and friends. I met her mum and dad at the start of the year and offered my apologies as well as condolences because she was failed and she should not have died. It is heartbreaking. The answer to the challenge of overcrowding in the emergency department in UHL is capacity and reform. We have made sure that UHL is the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Service Executive (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. On the pay and numbers strategy, that has been authorised, so there should be no issue with it being published. It comes to a little over 1,800 new posts and we are seeking mechanisms to fully roll out safe staffing through agency conversion as well. The net impact will be about 2,300 staff and more staff will be announced as part of the additional €92 million...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Service Executive (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The context for this is important. The Deputy quite rightly referred to the increase in healthcare demand. We have had an unprecedented increase in the number of healthcare workers as well. There has been a pretty extraordinary 24% increase in our health and social care workforce in the lifetime of this Government, or nearly 29,000 more healthcare professionals working in the health...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Service Executive (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The embargo is simply a mechanism that was required for an organisation that was hiring staff it had no money or sanction to hire. If a school principal started hiring teachers he or she had no money to hire, the school would be told immediately to stop hiring because it had no sanction to hire the teachers and no funding had been allocated for their salaries. The school would be told it...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Health Service Executive (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: -----to stop hiring teachers, and it is the same in this case. Unfortunately, we had a deeply frustrating situation where the HSE had hired thousands of people. The central controls within the HSE failed. The HSE, as soon as it saw it was coming anywhere near its funded target for the year, should have identified that. Had it done that, no such measure would have been required. I...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Primary Care Centres (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I wish to thank the Deputy for allowing me to update the house on this matter. The provision of a new Primary Care Centre in Swords is a priority for both this Government and the HSE. These centres play a vital role in delivering integrated care by enabling closer cooperation between health professionals from across different disciplines and sectors, while making services more accessible...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Services (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: As Minister for Health I am committed to the development of regional hospitals such as Cavan and Monaghan Hospitals. There has been a significant increase in investment in recent years in these hospitals. In 2020 the combined budget was €115m. In 2024 the budget was €139m, an increase of 21%. Staffing across the hospitals has grown by 348, from 1,161 in 2020 to 1,509 in 2024,...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Amyloidosis is a rare disease and covers a group of conditions that occurs when a protein called amyloid builds up in organs. There are a number of challenges with the diagnosis and treatment of Amyloidosis in Ireland due to the disparate range of ways those with queried amyloidosis present. Patients will often attend a wide variety of specialities before receiving appropriate testing and...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Primary Care Services (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: South-West Doctor-on-Call Limited, known as SouthDoc, provides OOH GP services for Counties Cork and Kerry. It has a membership of over 500 GPs and a network of 26 treatment centres including those at Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Bandon. SouthDoc dealt with over 212,000 patient contacts in 2023. I would like to assure the Deputy, that the HSE is in regular contact with SouthDoc to ensure...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Funding (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Thanks to continued investment in Health Services, Ireland has seen a decline in the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Since 2012, the mortality rate from heart disease has been reduced by 38%, mortality from stroke has been reduced by 48%. However, CVD remains a significant challenge claiming 9,000 lives annually. The Government acknowledges the vital support, education,...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Staff (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: There has been an unprecedented level of investment by this Government in the health service workforce in recent years. We have seen consistent growth in the workforce each year since 2020, with the growth in the number of staff recruited in 2023 being the highest since the foundation of the HSE. There are 28,480 more staff working in our health service than there were at the beginning of...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: As part of the multi-annual approach to reducing waiting lists an times, I published the 2024 Waiting List Action Plan on 27th March. Total funding of €360 million has been provided this year which continues to encompass the two-pronged approach of short-term actions to increase capacity and activity in the immediate term, and longer-term reform measures to sustainably reduce and...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Staff (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: As the Deputy is aware, the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar has undergone an extension to the Radiology Department to accommodate a new MRI scanner, generously provided by the Friends of the Hospital. The project, with a full project cost of €8.3m, was included in the HSE Capital Programme for 2023. Currently, demand for MRI services at Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar is being...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Since the establishment of the HSE National Clinical Programme for Stroke in 2010, there have been significant improvements in stroke care. Overall mortality from stroke has reduced significantly. Just over a decade ago, two in every ten people died after they had a stroke in 2010. Today, that has dropped to 1 in every ten. The number of acute stroke units has climbed from 1 to 22 units, and...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Aids and Appliances (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: South/South West Hospital Group includes Cork Unversity Hospital, South Infirmary - Victoria University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry, and Bantry General Hospital. Paediatric diabetes services for the South/South West Hospital Group are provided at Cork University Hospital (CUH) on a centralised basis. There are currently 10 children awaiting insulin pumps at...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Official Engagements (2 May 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I have visited the following hospitals since 17/09/21; (Please note that diary entries prior to this date are unavailable due to the cyber attack in Summer 2021) Tallaght Hospital 17/09/2021 Our Lady of Lourdes, Louth24/09/2021 Royal Victoria Eye & Ear 10/11/2021 Tallaght Hospital 15/11/2021 Rotunda Hospital 13/12/2021 Tallaght Hospital 11/02/2022 Cappagh Hospital...