Results 7,381-7,400 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Information and Communications Technology (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It is an ongoing process and it is a rapidly emerging field. There are areas we are looking at very closely such as cybersecurity, as we discussed, ethical AI and the guidelines on the use of that, patient consent, and full information on how information may be used. We can do population-based analyses with or without AI. Having that population-based information will be invaluable for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ambulance Service (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Tóibín for the question. We must endeavour to do everything we can to make sure the responses are properly triaged and then the response times are such that where they really do need to be there very quickly this is achieved. I acknowledge the commitment of the national ambulance service and all of those working in it to delivering this on behalf of patients. We...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ambulance Service (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Neither I, the Deputy nor those working in our ambulance service would stand over or defend those individual cases where people clearly have waited far too long. Nobody would defend that. On the response times, the core targets the service works to are the ECHO and the DELTA times. They were very close to those times last year. I hear the Deputy's point about going back to the 2015...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ambulance Service (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I certainly know the ambulance service can take that under advisement and will do everything they can to increase the turnaround times. They have been innovating over the past few years. The clinical hub now has hear and treat and see and treat services they did not have previously. The Deputy will be aware of the pathfinder model, the medical assessment unit pathways, the community...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Promotion (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for tabling this question. The National Cancer Registry Ireland reported that about one quarter of all cancers diagnosed between 2019 and 2021 were non melanoma skin cancers. 10 o’clock Melanoma of skin accounted for one in 20 of the remaining invasive cancers diagnosed and one in 50 of cancer deaths every year. It is very important that anyone who has any...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Services (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to emergency departments, I am sorry I do not have the figures for Cavan. However, last year we moved to an all-year-round approach to urgent and emergency care to get away from this annual cycle of winter plans. To the great credit of our healthcare professionals, we have seen a very important reduction. I am not for a moment diminishing the fact that the numbers are still way...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Services (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am obviously not familiar with the case but it does not sound right. We are in the middle of a very fundamental shift in healthcare provision in respect of exactly the situation that woman found herself in. We are moving from a five-day week service to a seven-day week hospital service. Of course, hospitals are open at the weekends but, exactly to the Deputy's point, all the services are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Information and Communications Technology (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. I heard this morning that AI is front and centre at Davos as well. It is certainly coming to the fore very rapidly. It will have potentially radical benefits, be they in diagnostics, in some advanced care, or robotics for procedures, and as we move forward with genetics, genomics and genome sequencing. AI will move more and more to the fore. What is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Information and Communications Technology (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It is such a good question. There are many parts to this. One is general cybersecurity. It can be imagined, following the cyber-breach we had, there has been very significant investment in and strengthening of cybersecurity across our health services. There are many subtleties to AI, for example, ethical AI. We would be handing over some form of advisory capacity, decision-making...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Meetings (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It is disappointing but very useful to hear that feedback. On the back of this discussion, I will talk to the Department and the HSE. Of course, I can meet the groups and am happy to do so again but ultimately they need to be talking to the people who are designing the model of care. Of course, it can be useful to talk to a Minister but really, they need direct input into the model of care...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Meetings (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I take that feedback very seriously. We cannot have a situation where we are developing a model of care for a group of people who are not involved and whose voices are not heard. We are trying, although it does not always work and we are not always successful, to move to a situation where the patient voice is front and centre in everything we do. We are embedding it in legislation in the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Hospital Services (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Tully for her question and assure her that I am fully committed to the development of Cavan General Hospital and to all of our regional hospitals right across the country. When I received the Deputy's question I asked for a note on the recent investment in Cavan hospital. It is all well and good with me saying what might happen in the future but I wanted to establish that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Appointments Status (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: There have been some important changes. I brought this matter to the Ministers, Deputies McGrath and Donohoe, some time ago in regard to major capital projects in healthcare. There have been some important changes and I will mention two in particular. First, the major capital ceiling was increased by €100 million to €200 million and, second, the four-stage process was reduced...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Appointments Status (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: We will then have them in Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway. They will make a big difference to the national inpatient day-case lists.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Meetings (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I do not think that dig is fair. I respectfully disagree with the Deputy on that. I am happy to meet the stakeholders. I have met TENI and other groups before and I am happy to meet them. I am meeting a constituent of mine soon who was in contact. She is the parent of a transgender child who wants to talk through some of the issues that they are facing, which I am familiar with and I am...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The €40 million was provided for 2021 and 2022, not since 2017. Those were the first two budgets of this Government. I asked exactly the same question the Deputy raised, namely, what is the full amount of funding sought under the national cancer strategy. The answer I was given was €20 million. In budget 2021, I allocated the full €20 million and a lot of money for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I would look forward to that. For years the Irish Cancer Society advocated for the abolition of inpatient hospital charges. We delivered that last year and the Irish Cancer Society deserves great credit for it. Many of the groups argue that we need quicker access. I am pleased to note that due to the investment in 2021, 2022 and 2023, waiting times are down across the board. Waiting...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Appointments Status (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I can provide the Deputy with information to the end of quarter 3. Unfortunately, Fórsa workers are refusing to provide information to the HSE, the Department and Parliament. This does not fall within a work-to-rule action, and I have clear advice on that. Nonetheless, that is what they are doing and we have to deal with it. I acknowledge the distress this has caused to patients...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Appointments Status (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: There are a few things to unpick there, the first of which is around waiting times for inpatient and day-case patients. There is good news in that regard. The Deputy will have seen the releases in recent weeks. We have looked at 2023. Thanks to an enormous effort by healthcare workers across the country, the waiting time versus the Covid peak for someone waiting the longest - over 12...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Hospital Facilities (18 Jan 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Cullinane for the question and his very appropriate ongoing agitation or advocacy for more beds. It is well established and, I think, agreed by all of us that there has been a significant deficit in the number of acute, high-dependency and critical care beds in the system. Since the start of 2020, as the Deputy will be aware, we have been in the process of adding a very...