Results 10,701-10,720 of 12,470 for speaker:Louise O'Reilly
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I am under pressure for time so will try to be as quick as I can. I apologise if I cannot wait for the reply; I will catch up on the transcript and will stay for as long as I can. I might be able to help with regard to the difficulty in recruiting home help staff. As the Minister will know already, I represented home help staff for long years. They are a fantastic bunch, mostly women,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: Surely the Minister has some authority to be able to instruct the people who are in charge of publishing those figures. The Minister is fooling nobody publishing them at 6 p.m. on a Friday. We all know if it was good news it would be 9 a.m. or even 8 a.m. on a Monday.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: It was not good news. The long-term waiters are up. We can see that from the Minister's own figures. The figures are up for children waiting.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: Whether it is good news or bad news, the figures should be published at a reasonable time. The Minister's colleague who was responsible for the housing figures got caught on this a number of times and now those figures are published. I have written to the Minister on this matter on more than one occasion. We all know what kind of news gets published at 6 p.m. on a Friday and it is not good...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I accept some hospitals are making progress but the Minister freely admitted he is not quite sure what the reasons are. It is good that he is not trying to take any credit for that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I know. It is down to people working hard, in some instances despite the efforts of the Government.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I appreciate that. I said I would say that. I did not say the Minister would necessarily agree with me. Challenges are faced in those hospitals where trolley numbers are high. Overall the trolley figure is not good and the Minister would not claim it is-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: -----and it is getting worse. When a former Minister, Mary Harney, declared a national emergency during the last Fianna Fáil Government, there were 469 patients on trolleys. Another former Minister, Senator James Reilly, said we would never again see 569 people on trolleys, and then we reached 615. It is clear that while there may be hospitals that are working well or better or doing...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: In any accident and emergency department in any hospital there will be staff working to the absolute top of their capability. People are giving way more than their contracted hours and going way beyond the call of duty. As well as looking at the successes - sometimes when we note the rate of increase has slowed, it is classed as a success - we have to look at what those hospitals that are...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: The hospital group to which the Minister referred is operating an integrated waiting list management system. That was reported in the media.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I am still waiting for an update that was due in August in relation to the proposals we made. I appreciate that those in the Department call it a single integrated waiting list management system. We shorten that and call it Comhliosta. The Department officials can have that name if they wish. If it is proven to work, and it has been proven to work-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I know I do not need to do a job to convince the Minister. If it has been proven to work, even in a small number of hospitals, then logic should dictate that it can and should be deployed nationally.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I do not think I have any street cred. The Minister is all right.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: I imagine the Minister is looking at no one in particular
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: The Minister is aware of my views on agency staff. Greater efforts can and should be made to convert agency staff to directly employed staff. While the former do fantastic work, they do not provide the best value for money. Agency staff in the ambulance service and elsewhere find it very difficult to break into the HSE. They are knocking on the door. The employees the HSE is contracting...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 38 - Department of Health (27 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: The number of adult referrals has increased by 10,000. Will the Minister confirm that funding will be provided to deal with this increase? Obviously, more referrals mean more resources will be necessary.
- Order of Business (26 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: On foot of what is contained on page 60 of the programme for Government, the Taoiseach is committed to the setting of annual performance targets in order to improve waiting times in respect of hospital procedures. Will the targets for children with scoliosis be met this year? I am not referring to the children who can be sent to have spinal fusion procedures abroad but to the 68 children...
- Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Office of Public Works Expenditure (26 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: 115. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform when the OPW started paying rent on the new Department of Health headquarters (details supplied); the cost of the rent per annum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40688/17]
- Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (26 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: 274. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the scoliosis waiting list targets were missed; the steps he will take to address the problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40195/17]
- Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (26 Sep 2017)
Louise O'Reilly: 275. To ask the Minister for Health the number of children affected due to the scoliosis waiting list targets being missed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40196/17]