Results 50,801-50,820 of 51,089 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: We are proud of this record and we can stand over the level of investment we have allocated to our health services. The question the Labour Party must ask is whether it is proud of what took place on their watch, or was it a case again of Labour wrestling with its conscience, with its conscience losing? As for the Labour Party's criticism of our reform record, we have set out not just a...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: Work is well under way to make these changes a reality. I also propose to share my time with the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy O'Malley.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: I did not interrupt speakers. We are in a House where the principle of free speech should be honoured and I would appreciate the opportunity to complete my speech. It is important to put the provision of acute hospital services in context. Over the last two or three decades there have been numerous important advances in surgical technology and in anaesthesia. These advances have greatly...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: I certainly will not. The Deputy should let me finish.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: No, I am not. I am pressing ahead.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: I am putting the information on the record.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: I accept these figures are disappointing news for the Opposition.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: It is not spin. This is the report of the NTPF.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: The Opposition should go back outside the door with their umbrellas.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: Based on its detailed interaction with individual hospitals the NTPF has identified a group of 19,591 patients who are reported to be waiting more than three months for specific procedures, mainly surgical, and the NTPF will target this group during 2004. There are 4,040 patients waiting more than 12 months for treatment included in the 19,591, who represent 20% of all those waiting. A...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: It has not been done by me or by officials in the Department but a multidisciplinary team with medical and nursing inputs. That is how this is happening. Those are objective facts. By arranging an estimated 12,000 treatments in 2004, the national treatment purchase fund will make further significant progress in reducing the average waiting times for surgical procedures. In 2004 I have...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: Therefore, the total amount of dedicated funding available to tackle waiting lists in 2004 — €75 million — is the same level of funding provided in 2003, despite the spin and misleading comments of Deputy McManus at the joint committee last week. However, the national treatment purchase fund now has the significant lead role in tackling waiting times and waiting lists. Opposition...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: Waiting times for surgical treatment have been reduced. In the specialty of cardiac surgery alone adult waiting lists have fallen by 90%, from 1,477 to 150, and children's waiting lists have fallen by 91% since 1997, from 109 to 10. One will never hear that from the Labour Party, the Fine Gael Party, the Green Party or Sinn Féin.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: It has been a dramatic improvement because of increased surgical provision, new units in St. James's Hospital, in particular, on the adult side and in the Mater Hospital and Cork University Hospital.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: The national treatment purchase fund has substantial capacity to treat patients and will continue to focus on reducing waiting times even further. The fund's target is to treat more than 12,000 this year and has the capacity to treat a minimum of 1,000 patients per month — 800 in Ireland and 200 in four private hospitals in England. Maintaining referrals at this level will result in waiting...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: Nearly 40% of acute hospitals will now refer patients who have been waiting more than three months to the national treatment purchase fund. Patients who have been waiting more than six months for treatment can contact the national treatment purchase fund directly or through their general practitioners to arrange treatment. We appeal to people to do that. While the national treatment purchase...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: These figures were objectively obtained. I do not have control over their compilation. Everybody knows about the system which is producing those activity figures in respect of who is being discharged from hospital. The system is independent from me and has been independent of different Ministers. That is well known. It is the bottom line. It might be hard to accept that but that is the reason...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: The single most important factor for patients who await admission to hospital is bed availability.

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: The extent of the shortfall in acute capacity has been identified by a report entitled, Acute Hospital Bed Capacity — A National Review, and it indicated a requirement for an additional 3,000 acute beds in acute hospitals by 2011. I introduced the first phase of this process in January 2002 which provided funding in excess of €117 million, capital and revenue, for an additional 709 acute...

Hospital Waiting Lists: Motion. (4 May 2004)

Micheál Martin: ——but little acknowledgement that 8,200 more nurses work in the system than in 1997 while the annual number of nurse training places has also increased by 67%.