Results 8,961-8,980 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004 and funding for all health services has been provided as part of its overall vote. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the particular issues raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the...

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: The complement of acute hospital beds, inpatient and day beds reported for 1990 was 12,152 (11,868 inpatient and 284 day beds) {Source: Health Statistics Report 1990, Department of Health}. A medical/surgical and public/private breakdown is not available for that year. My Department has requested the Health Service Executive to provide the information requested by the Deputy on the...

Written Answers — Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme: Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: The Health Service Executive (HSE) has responsibility for administering the health repayment scheme in conjunction with the appointed scheme administrator KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald. The HSE has informed my Department that to date over 38,900 claim forms have been received under the Health Repayment Scheme. It is estimated that following adjustments for rejections and duplicate claims, the...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: As the Deputy will be aware my Department is not one of the Departments scheduled for decentralisation under the Government's Decentralisation Programme. By the end of December 2006, twenty-eight civil servants transferred to decentralising Departments from my Department. Further details in respect of the transfer of these officers are available from the decentralising Departments.

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 118, 121 and 254 together. Tackling all health care associated infections, including MRSA and C. difficile, continues to be a priority for the Government and the Health Service Executive. Health care acquired infections are not a new phenomenon and have always been a potential complication of medical treatment, especially in hospitals. That is the case...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I am sorry to hear of the circumstances experienced by the Deputy's mother-in-law. I recall, as a young girl, hearing people talking about the "hospital bug". In more recent years we have been able to put names on some of these infections. The reality is that the infrastructure of the health system is still catching up. For example, we have a long way to go in terms of the number of...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I will not get into the medical-legal bill. There are many lawyers going around this country dealing with that issue and I will not assist them in any way. The fact that we now have the data, however, is hugely positive. We do not know what the figures were ten years ago because we never measured them so we do not know if it is getting worse. There was an improvement in 2007 over 2006,...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I must tell the Deputy that we will not have the capital funding to do all the things we would love to do with our public hospitals. We have over 40 hospitals, many of which are very old. If we were establishing a health system today we would not have 40 hospitals but we do have that number of functioning hospitals and in the short to medium-term it is just not possible to provide the...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: There are five hospitals in the region and one third of their medical patients come to Dublin hospitals while half their surgical patients do so, which is an extraordinary statistic. Notwithstanding that, a person living in the north east is twice as likely to end up in hospital than in any other part of the country. There does not seem to be any reason for that. Whatever we are trying to...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: Until 13 September, there were 956 cases of C. difficile notified. As there was no notification before, we have nothing with which to compare these statistics. I do not think there is always a correlation between the money provided and the cleanliness of a hospital. Some of the hospitals that scored highest on the hygiene are those that have no microbiologist, such as Mallow hospital....

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I will answer Deputy Neville's question first if that is in order. Hygiene standards must be implemented in all health care settings, such as in the community setting and in residential settings caring for older people, children, individuals with a disability and the psychiatric setting. This is the intention in terms of the independent inspectorate from HIQA but it has not yet happened. I...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: Cases of litigation are always being taken against the health service and those matters are now managed by the State Claims Agency. Because we have enterprise liability I will not speculate on the outcome as this will depend on whether the State was liable. In the short term we can implement an approach based on hygiene which is what has been done. The most significant action would be to...

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: The C. difficile infection is new and I cannot give the statistics on how we compare with other countries because we only commenced measuring its incidence on 4 May last and it is a new measurement. It is important we do not ——

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I remind the Deputy that half of all those who die in the country die in hospitals and this is the case in every other country. We have always had——

Hospital Acquired Infections. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: ——what was known as the hospital bug. There are now names on these different infectious diseases acquired as a result of health care. The challenge for us is to have the expertise and the infrastructure to deal with them. The hospital of the future will be the single-bed model and this is what will pertain in the new children's hospital and in the new St. Vincent's Hospital. We have...

Health Service Executive Expenditure. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: In the first half of the year the Health Service Executive identified a projected deficit for this year in the region of €300 million if no remedial action were taken. The executive brought forward proposals to address the deficit and bring expenditure back in line with its Vote. The proposals were agreed by the board of the HSE. I was advised of the measures by the chairman of the HSE...

Health Service Executive Expenditure. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: To deal with the last issue first, some of the matters covered by that saving were not proceeding this year, for example, the fair deal. It is also——

Health Service Executive Expenditure. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: It is also the case that a number of issues must be addressed for the remainder of this year, one being the repayments, which will be funded separately. By way of general comment, the Government has not found €400 billion to bail out banks. What the Government has done is given a guarantee against a very strong asset base, a matter we will be debating in the House later today. With regard...

Patient Safety Authority. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: The health sector is one of the most complex areas of activity in every country and it must by its very nature command the confidence of those who use it. While I am confident that the majority of patients in Ireland receive effective and safe treatment, unfortunately, errors do occur in any health service and it is important that we have systems in place to detect and respond appropriately...

Patient Safety Authority. (30 Sep 2008)

Mary Harney: I will take the last issue first, namely, the case raised by Deputy Michael Noonan. I was not aware of this when I was answering questions last Wednesday, but in fact the patient was contacted and given all the facts before I was aware of the need to establish facts. The authorities had made contact directly with the patient and given him the facts. That remains the position in the vast...