Results 6,301-6,320 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Health Services. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: Last year, hospital emergency departments treated 1.15 million people, of which 368,000 were admitted to hospital. In 2005 the average number of patients on trolleys awaiting admission each day was 259. The average to date in 2009 is down to 141, and figures to date in May show a further reduction to 116. Data collected by the HSE over recent months indicates that the vast majority of...

Health Services. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I wish to offer a number of responses to what the Deputy said. Everybody in the country acknowledges there have been significant improvements, including the INO, which has said so to me. That is not to say challenges and difficulties do not remain, because they do. One of the challenges is long-term care. As Deputy Reilly is aware, a significant number of people in this city, in...

Health Services. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I got some literature from a Fine Gael candidate in the constituency in which I live saying that the party will not proceed with the fair deal. I am not trying to make a political point. I was surprised to see that because, in fairness, I think Deputy Reilly is supporting it and it has great support from older people and their relatives. The introduction of the fair deal will greatly...

Health Services. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: In Holland, a visit to a GP is €24.80. If we could have a similar cost in Ireland we would be able to do far more.

Health Services. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: GPs receive €24.80 for a visit to their practice and the cost of a telephone consultation is €12.40. In comparing Holland to Ireland we need to compare like with like. I was talking about six hours from the time of arrival, not six hours from the time a patient is seen. That is the new measurement tool. A total of 92% of patients who attend accident and emergency departments in the 19...

Health Service Reform. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I do not believe that there will, in fact, be a loss of €50 million to public hospitals arising from the new consultants' contract, and I will set out the reasons. A central objective of the new consultants' contract is to improve access for public patients to public hospital services. It ensures, for example, for the first time in public hospitals, that patients needing outpatient or...

Health Service Reform. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: There is a misunderstanding. The hospital does not get a fee for every private patient who goes into a public hospital. A hospital only gets a fee for a patient if he or she is in a designated bed and only approximately 20% of beds are private beds. Sometimes half the numbers of patients in a hospital can be private patients but the hospital does not get any fee for them. It can only...

Health Service Reform. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: The administrative costs of the Health Service Executive and the National Health Service, NHS, are approximately the same at 16% of the budget. As Deputy Reilly is aware, the NHS is outsourcing a significant amount of activity to the private sector. My point is that we should become less obsessed with who pays who to do what. We should be more concerned with patients and getting access for...

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 74 together. The aim of the HSE's transformation programme is to have 530 primary care teams developed by 2011. A total of 110 teams are in place at the moment. The health professionals in these teams are holding clinical team meetings and delivering integrated comprehensive care to patients. The HSE aims to have a further 100 teams in place by the...

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I am the first to admit that all is not well in the health service. That is the reason we are involved in a massive programme of transformation in terms of how we do things and the way people work. Primary care is about bringing together under a new working arrangement existing health professionals who very often treat the same service users. I recently visited Ballymun health centre, with...

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: The Deputy is wrong; the service is not developer-led. Primary care centres cannot go ahead without general practitioner involvement. That is a fact. The Deputy will be aware that many of the successful projects have been promoted by general practitioners. I note a facility involving practically all general practitioners in the Killarney area has just been refused planning permission,...

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: We have, in the past few years, employed an additional 12,000 nurses in the public health system. Deputies will be aware from the OECD report which examined regulation and public sector services in Ireland that we have the highest ratio in the entire OECD. In fact ours is double the ratio in France and is substantially higher than the ratio in Northern Ireland and the UK. My colleague, the...

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: We can have a debate about universal access but at a time when we are under pressure to provide services for those who need them most, that is quite a bit away. The promised eligibility and entitlement legislation is-----

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I accept that. It is major legislation.

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: It is incredibly complex legislation in regard to who is entitled to what, an issue on which we need clarity as soon as possible.

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I understand Deputy Ó Caoláin is to see the new service tomorrow at 11.30 a.m.

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I hope the Deputy will go to see it.

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: I would like Deputy Reilly to get the independent unit in the Department of Finance to cost his "Fair Care" proposal. It proposes that nobody will pay any more money. Who will pay for this universal access?

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: The last time the Deputy was involved in universal access, he nearly broke the bank with what we had to pay the doctors.

Health Service Staff. (21 May 2009)

Mary Harney: As the Deputy knows, I am not involved in any negotiations nor would it be appropriate for me to be involved in negotiations.