Results 61-80 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: First, we do not have the money to do so. Second, it is not the only way of dealing with the problems that arise in the emergency department.

Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: They are. In a moment, I will give data on beds. With fewer beds there are more than 1 million more people being treated in our hospitals. The solution is not more of the same and pouring more money into doing things the way they have always been done. There must be change through innovation like the acute medicine programme, which I know Deputies opposite have been briefed on and which...

Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: They are not being staffed. As the Deputy knows, it is not about the physical bed.

Child Care Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Deputy might listen to the answer.

Medical Redress Schemes (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Lourdes hospital redress scheme was established following an inquiry into peripartum hysterectomy at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. The inquiry was chaired by Judge Maureen Harding Clark. Judge Clark was requested by the Government to advise on an appropriate scheme of redress arising from the findings of the report. Having received her advice, the Government approved the...

Medical Redress Schemes (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I understand the Deputy's wish and those of his colleagues in the constituencies in question. Unfortunately, however, as a Minister, I have wider responsibilities, as has the Government. The inquiry chaired by Judge Maureen Harding Clark and the report she produced were well received by the patients concerned and their representative organisation. The judge continues to be held in very...

Medical Redress Schemes (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: Unfortunately, I am not in a position to accede to the Deputy's appeal, notwithstanding the passion with which he makes it. When the Government decided, on foot of the report of Judge Maureen Harding Clark, to have an ex gratia compensation scheme - the term "redress scheme" is more appropriate because it is not possible to compensate those concerned with money for the traumatic impacts on...

Medical Redress Schemes (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I accept they did not deal with the 35 cases. One of those 35 cases is the woman who recently took the judicial review, which was denied. I know the name of the woman but not her circumstances. She felt the redress scheme should have dealt with her but it was denied by the courts. For a host of reasons, I am not in a position to reopen this scheme or to establish a supplementary scheme.

Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: Roscommon County Hospital provides an important range of elective and emergency services and treats cases on both an inpatient and a day case basis. Like a number of other hospitals, Roscommon County Hospital has experienced difficulties in recruiting non-consultant hospital doctors during the normal six monthly rotation in January 2011. This is not a staff moratorium or financial issue;...

Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The HSE is changing the manner in which non-consultant hospital doctors are appointed. This week, I met with Dr. White and others on this point. It is becoming difficult in an environment where there is a global shortage to get non-consultant hospital doctors for smaller, non-training hospitals. The most effective way of overcoming the difficulty is to have smaller hospitals combined with...

Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I understand Deputy Naughten was speaking with Dr. O'Keeffe, who manages the three hospitals, this week and he is familiar with the arrangements. This week, I had a meeting at HSE on this point and others, including emergency units, and I am assured that 24-7 services will continue. I cannot guarantee it will continue forever but I can guarantee the best endeavours are being used as we...

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 6 and 23 together. It is important that the clear focus of the health service is on the number of patients we treat and not on the number of beds. Increasingly, our focus is on measuring and improving patient outcomes and this will continue over the coming years. There are approximately 11,800 inpatient beds and 1,800 day beds in the public hospital system....

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: There were a number of questions. We must become less focused on beds and more focused on activity. I say this for a number of reasons. If we compare the figures for 2010 to those for 2005, we will see that we are now treating an extra 100,000 patients in emergency departments, an extra million outpatients, an extra 250,000 day cases and an extra 20,000 inpatients. That is in addition to...

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I was agreeing the service plan in the context of the budget and the financial position for this year. Every effort was made to minimise any impact on services to patients and to maximise the cuts in the procurement of legal services, telecommunications and all services procured by the HSE, including fees on the drugs bill. A huge proportion of the cutbacks will come from that source in...

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: As regards co-location, it is interesting that this week some Fine Gael Deputies were still lobbying me on that matter.

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Deputy has an interesting perspective. Some days he accuses me of taking the privatisation route in long-term care, while he then asks why I do not tender out to private nursing homes. The Deputy cannot have it every way. He opposes things but then proposes them as a solution to a problem.

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: He just prefers them to be down the road so that doctors can spend their time in their cars going from A to B. I must again correct the Deputy concerning Professor Tom Keane. I gave accurate information to the House, that Professor Keane had a meeting. I did not know the nature of the meeting, whether it was over lunch or coffee. He had a meeting with the Irish College of General...

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I did not invent the meeting. I had spoken him that very morning before I came in here.

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: Were protocols agreed?

Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: For the Deputy to suggest that there have been no improvements in the public health system is bizarre. I cited infection control and cancer outcomes. Does the Deputy deny that the reorganisation of cancer services has been enormously beneficial for patients with better treatment and faster access to highly skilled expertise? Would he deny that life expectancy, which is a measurement of the...