Results 5,861-5,880 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I congratulate them again and take the opportunity to wish them a happy Christmas.

Other Questions: Health Insurance Data (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I thank the Deputy for her question because it is an area very much to the core of what the Government is doing in health insurance. There are three legs to this stool, namely the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the private health insurers. The Deputy is correct that there is a much greater proportion of older people in the VHI. For example, Laya Healthcare has...

Other Questions: Health Insurance Data (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: There was much debate about this several weeks ago. The scheme is effective to the point that it compensates for 78% of those over the age of 70 and 85% for those over 80, rates which were 73% and 82% respectively last year. The plan is to get it to a rate of 90% in terms of its effectiveness in compensating insurers who have older people on their books. Let us call a spade a spade. If...

Other Questions: Health Insurance Data (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: There have been several reports on the VHI, many of them done by the Department’s actuarial advisers, Milliman. These are the reports the VHI and the Department would take up. I have seen the Matheson report too. The risk equalisation scheme is working. It seeks to compensate insurers for the cost of older policyholders who tend to be sicker and use health services more. We have...

Other Questions: Health Insurance Data (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The suggestion of forcing through regulation that a certain number of people of a particular age group must be insured would raise all sorts of problems with competition law. In any event, the carrot is always better than the stick. The VHI is positive about the risk equalisation scheme while the other insurers are negative. If they were so concerned about the tariffs applied in the...

Other Questions: Proposed Legislation (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: It is a terrible tragedy for any couple which finds the chances of survival for their baby are not realistic. The diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality has to be one of the worst pieces of news that any pregnant mother can get. However, termination of pregnancy in Ireland is permitted only in very limited circumstances, that is, only if it is established, as a matter of probability, that...

Other Questions: Ambulance Service Response Times (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I will have to check out why that would or could happen. In the past a similar situation arose in Dublin, with up to eight ambulances parked outside hospitals at a given moment with people being tended to by the paramedics and some hospital staff because there was no room in the emergency departments. Thankfully, that situation does not arise any more. I will find out why all the...

Other Questions: Ambulance Service Response Times (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: That would not be acceptable. We have to find out why, once the ambulances have arrived at a hospital, they are not released immediately to be available for any other emergencies that might arise. Ambulances should not be left parked outside hospitals for any length of time. That is not their purpose or function. We have the technology to forewarn and give all the clinical details over...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: In July 2011, when the special delivery unit, SDU, was set up, a total of 6,277 patients were waiting more than nine months for inpatient or day-case treatment. By the end of 2012, that number had been reduced by 98% for adults waiting over nine months for inpatient or day-case treatment and by 95% for children waiting over 20 weeks for such treatment. That is a fact. As an older lady said...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The Deputy seems to be caught in the old ways of thinking. He assumes it is a simple one-and-one-is-two job.

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The situation requires a change in the way we do business. If we do the same things the same way the whole time there will be no change. That is what went on for 14 years when the Deputy’s party was in government, despite its quadrupling the spend on health. With reduced funds and staff, we are making significant improvements. The Deputy is simply wrong. The fact is that the...

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The Deputy can choose the month of September if he wishes. We are now in December. I have met Mr. Ian Carter, who is in charge of the hospitals and inpatient-----

Other Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I have the up-to-date figures and they are not remotely like those the Deputy talks about. There have been huge decreases in the numbers of people waiting. When we came into power in 2011 there were tens of thousands of people waiting longer than a year. Some had waited longer than two years for treatment. We met the one-year target and the nine-month target and we will meet the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Staff Remuneration (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: It is important to point out the HSE has been investigating this issue and it is the body which revealed what we now know. There are further revelations that will become apparent when it is finished its investigation. The investigation will not be a finite thing that suddenly stops and that is the end of the matter. As I have already said, new arrangements are being put in place to ensure...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Health Services Staff Remuneration (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: As the Deputy will know, I have already made that appeal very publicly on the airwaves and television screens of the nation. The Irish people have always been very generous, I suppose because of a deep and dark past and the experience we had two centuries ago. Even in hard times, they were never found wanting in giving to others who were less fortunate than themselves. I certainly appeal...

Other Questions: Ambulance Service Response Times (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: Response times vary significantly regionally, and reliance on response times alone to measure pre-hospital emergency services is of limited value. We are, therefore, moving to complement time-based indicators with clinical outcome indicators for better assessment of modern ambulance work. As the Deputy knows, the west is geographically challenging, with 61,500 emergency and urgent...

Other Questions: Ambulance Service Response Times (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The ongoing development of the national ambulance service is providing a robust platform to continue to improve the performance against response time standards. The reality is we are looking at a very new type of service. It is not just the ambulance arriving-----

Other Questions: Ambulance Service Response Times (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: -----it is the ability of the paramedic or the first responder to arrive. In addition, the air ambulance service is a huge support for the on-ground services. I do not have information on the figures to which the Deputy alludes. We will investigate further and come back to him in response to the specific issue he raises about Tuam, Mulranny and the third place he mentioned.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mental Health Services Provision (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The Deputy is spouting fantasies.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mental Health Services Provision (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: That is precisely right.