Results 141-160 of 9,884 for in 'Dáil debates' speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Rare Diseases: Statements (6 Mar 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will be sharing my time with Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan. Rare diseases, as we know, are anything but rare. There are now more than 6,000 known rare diseases. One in 17 people in Ireland has a rare disease, which is 300,000 people. When you include the mums and dads, the brothers and sisters, and the sons and daughters who live with all of those people with a rare disease, it is...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): General Practitioner Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree that the State needs to step in and I suggest it has done so in a significant way. We have increased the number of training places from 120 to 350 and we are supporting the ICGP in what it is doing. I am open to having directly employed GPs. In fact, in Swanlinbar, which has been referenced, there is a locum GP who is paid by the HSE to provide those services. In areas that are...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Health Strategies (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. Our overall ambition in government is to use technology to the fullest extent possible to keep everybody well and provide them with support in their homes where they need healthcare support. Our ambition is also to utilise it fully in community and hospital care. Several really good programmes are in place, the chronic disease management, CDM, programme...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): General Practitioner Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The question was on general rural GPs but I had a sneaky suspicion we would end up talking about Swanlinbar. I acknowledge the engagement and advocacy of Deputy Smith, other Deputies and Senators on this. The matter has been much ventilated. As the Deputy will be aware, the GP who provided the service has retired. I believe it was in 2020. The HSE advertised to fill the position on...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Health Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not aware of the HSE board approval requirement. It is a clinical service and the HSE board agrees the national service plan. Any capital investment above €10,000 has to go to the board, but that is not what this is, so I am not sure what approval is being referred to. I join the Deputy's acknowledgement of the Irish Kidney Association and many other organisations such as...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Health Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am afraid this will be a very short interaction on my side; I apologise. I looked into this in detail and asked the HSE to come back with more but at the moment all I can tell the Deputy is that there is a proposal, as of course she will be aware, for an externally contracted satellite haemodialysis unit for Ennis. It is under review and that is really all I have. I am sorry; I am not...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Health Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I can certainly look into the timing of when this was initially flagged locally. All I can tell the Deputy is that it was not part of the considerations for new development funding for this year. However, it is a good idea. It would make a big difference for west Clare as well as north Clare, as she quite rightly said. I have witnessed the impact of home dialysis. We all know people,...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank both Deputies for this. I fully appreciate where they are coming from in the context of how the people they represent are genuinely worried about going to the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick. I get that. We have to do two things. We must continue to invest in Ennis Hospital. We have been investing in it year on year, we have expanded its opening hours, its...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Medicinal Products (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy very much for the question. I will start by acknowledging his ongoing advocacy in terms of new medicines, including rare diseases, but obviously, this is not one of those cases. As the Deputy is aware, the HSE has statutory responsibility for decisions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines. However, it is incumbent upon all of us, as public representatives, to...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Medicinal Products (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I will walk through the steps regarding where this is now and where it is going. As I said, the company applied for reimbursement just in the last few weeks. That application is now undergoing a rapid review at the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. The NCPE target for that is four weeks but it does not always meet it because it assesses many new medicines. Yet,...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Medicinal Products (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: These are exactly the issues that will be looked at in the rapid review and the health technology assessment. How much would it cost the State if it is on the drug payment scheme? What amount of good would the medicine do, given the amount of money that would be spent? That is how we must look at all medicines. It may be the case that it will be recommended for the drug payment scheme....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Hospital Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I would challenge the idea that there is a crisis in consultant recruitment here. There simply is not. We have increased the consultant workforce by 1,000 during the lifetime of this Government and there are hundreds more consultant posts in train at the moment. In fact, the conversation I am having with the HSE at the moment is how we are going to fund the consultant posts, given how many...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. I visited Ennis Hospital not that long ago and must say I was hugely impressed, especially by the work carried out by healthcare professionals in the injury unit and the medical assessment unit, MAU. We are investing at a significant rate in Ennis Hospital, including in urgent and emergency care. In 2022. I provided €2 million for the Ennis...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. She raised two really important issues. One is the unacceptable level of pressure for patients and healthcare workers in UHL. It is not acceptable. On any given day now, UHL can make up one in five, or even one in four of the number of patients on trolleys in the entire country. At a national level, the good news is that the number of patients on trolleys fell very...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Hospital Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. The project she referenced, namely, the model 3 hospital project, was initiated by the HSE - the RCSI was heavily involved in it - to investigate exactly these issues: the challenges in recruitment and retention of consultants across specialties in the model 3 hospitals, and then, of course, to make recommendations. I was very happy to launch the report...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Hospital Services (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will ask the Department to revert to the Deputy with a more detailed timeline both with regard to when in quarter 2, the sites it is going to go to and the recommendations it is starting with. It is important to say that while there is a challenge that has been identified and that challenge is going to be responded to, there are a lot of positive things happening across the health service...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Ambulance Service (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: South Tipperary can certainly be looked at in terms of expansion. The National Ambulance Service works from bases in Cashel, Clonmel and Tipperary. The service in south Tipperary has a total allocated workforce of 46 and is recruiting locally for some vacancies. For example, it has been advertising on Spin Southwest and on Beat 102-103. It has had targeted local advertising campaigns...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Ambulance Service (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will bring the Deputy's suggestions on engaging with schools and so on back to the National Ambulance Service and ask it to redouble its efforts in terms of local recruitment. I acknowledge that in spite of the fact the National Ambulance Service has these vacant posts, the ambulance service in south Tipperary has been doing very well. We can look at two of the main indicators that are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Health Services Staff (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am acutely aware of the localised pressures that the pause is causing. I was in Sligo University Hospital on Friday last where I spoke with emergency department teams and various clinical teams across the hospital. They highlighted to me, as others have, that the pause is causing real pressures on the front line. I fully acknowledge that. The issue we have is that the HSE hired...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Health Services Staff (29 Feb 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I would love to be in a position where the HSE could simply go out and hire whatever staff it believed was appropriate and we could simply write a blank cheque, which is what we would have to do. I know the Deputy is not suggesting we do that. We cannot do that. We cannot run any public service in that manner. I am aware that there are pressures but it is also incumbent upon me and others...