Results 1,081-1,100 of 2,965 for speaker:Robert Dowds

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Are they still swinging towards compliance?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Is the determination on their part, the HSE’s part or on the part of both?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: I wonder.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Am I right in taking it that the majority of staff in those institutions are subject to the Haddington Road agreement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Does that not give the HSE an angle, if some had been approved under the Haddington Road agreement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: We will get the full picture then.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: I appreciate that. I thank Mr. O'Brien. While there have been some reductions in medical prices, it continues to be a source of amazement to the average man and woman that there is such a discrepancy between what people pay for drugs dispensed by pharmacists in Ireland and what they pay in the UK or Spain. Can Mr. O’Brien fill us in on the progress made in that regard? That would...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Can Mr. Hennessy give us some figures on that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: What is the total?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Why are medicines so expensive? People suspect that general practitioners, GPs, urge people to take particular brands. Does that have a bearing on the cost?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Can Mr. Hennessy examine that to establish the extent to which individual GPs are prescribing the cheaper alternative? I would not want them to do so in a way that would be detrimental to a person’s recovery.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Is Mr. Hennessy saying that if a GP prescribes a more expensive item unnecessarily, the HSE will refuse to cough up the full cost? Who takes the hit there?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Who takes the hit if a GP continues to prescribe the more expensive item? Is it the patient or the chemist?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: How would that operate in the case of someone on a medical card? Surely in that case the State takes the hit?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Therefore the State takes the hit.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: If a GP recommends a particular brand for a patient, which is not the cheapest brand but the patient is on a medical card, how does that not hit the taxpayer?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Can Mr. Mulvany not be specific? My suspicion as a lay person is that there is probably considerable room for savings on the administrative side and that there is probably a need for greater spending on some of the front-line services such as nursing.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: How did it manage to do that? Was it able to cover everything using regular staff?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: Is Mr. Mulvany suggesting that the examination carried out on Tallaght hospital led to considerable efficiencies in how it was run and operated? Am I right in suggesting that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 21 - Budget Management in Health Service Executive
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards (12 Jun 2014)

Robert Dowds: To what extent did the HSE try to spread that out across all the hospitals in the country and, if it did, why are there such differences between budget overspends in some hospitals over others?