Results 6,241-6,260 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Medicinal Products (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: These are exactly the issues that will be looked at in the rapid review and the health technology assessment. How much would it cost the State if it is on the drug payment scheme? What amount of good would the medicine do, given the amount of money that would be spent? That is how we must look at all medicines. It may be the case that it will be recommended for the drug payment scheme....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Hospital Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I would challenge the idea that there is a crisis in consultant recruitment here. There simply is not. We have increased the consultant workforce by 1,000 during the lifetime of this Government and there are hundreds more consultant posts in train at the moment. In fact, the conversation I am having with the HSE at the moment is how we are going to fund the consultant posts, given how many...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. I visited Ennis Hospital not that long ago and must say I was hugely impressed, especially by the work carried out by healthcare professionals in the injury unit and the medical assessment unit, MAU. We are investing at a significant rate in Ennis Hospital, including in urgent and emergency care. In 2022. I provided €2 million for the Ennis...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. She raised two really important issues. One is the unacceptable level of pressure for patients and healthcare workers in UHL. It is not acceptable. On any given day now, UHL can make up one in five, or even one in four of the number of patients on trolleys in the entire country. At a national level, the good news is that the number of patients on trolleys fell very...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Hospital Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. The project she referenced, namely, the model 3 hospital project, was initiated by the HSE - the RCSI was heavily involved in it - to investigate exactly these issues: the challenges in recruitment and retention of consultants across specialties in the model 3 hospitals, and then, of course, to make recommendations. I was very happy to launch the report...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Hospital Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will ask the Department to revert to the Deputy with a more detailed timeline both with regard to when in quarter 2, the sites it is going to go to and the recommendations it is starting with. It is important to say that while there is a challenge that has been identified and that challenge is going to be responded to, there are a lot of positive things happening across the health service...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Ambulance Service (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: South Tipperary can certainly be looked at in terms of expansion. The National Ambulance Service works from bases in Cashel, Clonmel and Tipperary. The service in south Tipperary has a total allocated workforce of 46 and is recruiting locally for some vacancies. For example, it has been advertising on Spin Southwest and on Beat 102-103. It has had targeted local advertising campaigns...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Ambulance Service (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will bring the Deputy's suggestions on engaging with schools and so on back to the National Ambulance Service and ask it to redouble its efforts in terms of local recruitment. I acknowledge that in spite of the fact the National Ambulance Service has these vacant posts, the ambulance service in south Tipperary has been doing very well. We can look at two of the main indicators that are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Health Services Staff (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am acutely aware of the localised pressures that the pause is causing. I was in Sligo University Hospital on Friday last where I spoke with emergency department teams and various clinical teams across the hospital. They highlighted to me, as others have, that the pause is causing real pressures on the front line. I fully acknowledge that. The issue we have is that the HSE hired...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Health Services Staff (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I would love to be in a position where the HSE could simply go out and hire whatever staff it believed was appropriate and we could simply write a blank cheque, which is what we would have to do. I know the Deputy is not suggesting we do that. We cannot do that. We cannot run any public service in that manner. I am aware that there are pressures but it is also incumbent upon me and others...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Health Services Staff (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I imagine that when we get to the end of this year recruitment will be more than half what it was in previous years. The Deputy is correct that we have hired about 6,000 staff per year for the last three years. That has been very unusual. When we look back at previous years, a normal year in the previous five years would have meant hiring between 2,000 and 3,000 additional staff. This...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Ambulance Service (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I know he will join me in acknowledging the extraordinary commitment of the National Ambulance Service workers in delivering care for his constituents in south Tipperary and across the country. We are investing significantly in the National Ambulance Service. This year, investment will be approximately €227 million, which amounts to a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: While important progress is being made in ensuring quicker access for children, we all know the waiting lists are still too long. They have been too long for a very long time and Covid-19 made them worse. In response, we adopted a multi-annual approach and we have had several waiting list action plans. We will shortly publish the waiting list action plan for this year. While I fully...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to hospitals needing to comply with relativity measures, I have instructed the HSE to pause capital investment into any hospital that is refusing to join the productivity drive. We have previously discussed the health performance visualisation platform, HPVP. The vast majority of HSE hospitals are on this platform, which is essential if we are to make sure we get as much patient...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: These issues were raised with me by patient advocacy groups, and I took them very seriously. On the back of that, I spoke directly with front-line clinicians involved in providing paediatric orthopaedic services. I asked them whether they felt they got dedicated beds, dedicated theatre space and priority access to MRI, theatre, etc. The answer I received was that they did not. I have...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Policies (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Thank you deputy for your question. You reference 'technology' in your question, which is a very board term in healthcare, that can include medicines, diagnostics and genomics etc. . In my answer, I have taken your question to mean a focus on the ICT aspects of technology. First of all, its important to recognise where there is strong utilisation of ICT and where we are well advanced in...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Tobacco Control Measures (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am aware of efforts by a small number of retailers to use the tobacco price list in a manner that resembles an advertisement. The Deputy previously raised this issue during the passage of the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023. Price lists are provided for in section 43(5) of the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2002 and are prescribed in the Public...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Staff (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: There has been an unprecedented level of investment by this Government in the health service workforce in recent years. There has been 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 26,617 more staff working in our health service than there were at the beginning of...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Nursing Homes (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for this question, and I acknowledge his long-standing engagement on the potential future use of Crooksling Nursing Home for community purposes. The Deputy and I have visited Crooksling and have had many conversations on the topic. I can confirm that Crooksling is under the ownership of the HSE. A HSE review of Crooksling Nursing Home was undertaken which determined...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Ambulance Service (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I wish to acknowledge the commitment of the National Ambulance Service in delivering essential pathways to support access to care for patients in County Roscommon and across the country. The Government is investing over €227m in the NAS this year, an increase of €58m over the 2019 allocation. This investment has helped raise NAS staffing to 2,338 WTEs at end January 2024, a...