Results 1,661-1,680 of 8,015 for speaker:Jonathan O'Brien

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Next, the HSE calculates the additional moneys it needs to meet demographic changes or rising demand. Does the HSE discuss how it will tackle backlogs, waiting lists and all of that stuff? Does the HSE say: "Look, we need X amount to reduce waiting lists by a certain percentage every year?" Is there such a plan in place?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I perused some of the accounts for the community health organisation, CHOs, and focused on the mental health area. I would like a couple of things to be further explained. To be fair, we received very detailed accounts and some of the accounts ran to more than 300 pages. The accounts were broken down into categories such as catering, cleaning, washing and medical but really everything.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: It was a report that was given to the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I was struck by one item in the report and I ask the delegation for an explanation. I refer to the transport heading where costs were entitled "staff transport" and "patient transport" costs. I understand what the staff transport costs might be. For example, the cost may refer to visits by public health nurses and so on. I ask the witnesses to explain what is meant by the term "patient...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: This is just within the mental heath service.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Yes. I understand, from the information that I have been told, that the vast majority of that budget involves the transfer of files rather than individuals. If somebody moves from one service to another or from one unit to another unit, the file is not given to the patient but is transported separately, and we use a taxi service to transfer the files. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Is it possible to get a better breakdown of the heading entitled "patient transport"?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I want to know the following. How much of the money is spent on transporting patients? How much of the money is used to transport files? A taxi service is used. My questions are based on certain information in my possession. Let us say a hospital wishes to transfer nine files. In that case, the hospital must ring nine different taxi services. Is there no scope within the system for...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Is that reviewed annually? Does it go out on a tender basis?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: If there are areas that do not do this, it is not because of a protocol or a rule but because they are not complying with best practice.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: We have a system where we use taxi services and we engage with them to try to get best value for money. It should not be a case that a person has to call nine taxis to transport nine files in one morning. If that is happening, it is down to bad practice in that particular area.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: If possible, perhaps Mr. Mulvany could come back to the committee in the next few days or weeks on the figures for each of the community healthcare organisations, CHOs.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: It is and I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General for clarifying that because I have not seen that figure. I have only been looking at the mental health figures which have broken it down by ambulance and by taxi. In some areas we are spending nothing on transferring patients by ambulance but in CHO 7, for example, €270,000 was spent last year. These are significant figures and I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I would prefer if the bigger figure was broken down. I was just working off the mental health figures because that is the only information I had. A figure of €50 million is a significant amount of money.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health (5 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Perhaps the committee could get a note on that figure because €50 million is a significant amount of money.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Contractors (4 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: 123. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of subcontracting companies that have incurred losses as a result of the liquidation of a company (details supplied); and if plans are in place to utilise these companies in the retendering of the schools bundle 5 PPP contract. [29113/18]

Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: We also agree.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Budgets (3 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I want to discuss the Department of Health. The reason for the overspend last year as well as this year is, as we know from statements issued by the Department, the demand for services. As such, these are not once-off costs but are costs which will continue to apply in the next and subsequent years. The Department estimates that we are looking at an overrun to the end of June of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Budgets (3 Jul 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: The director general of the HSE is coming before the Committee of Public Accounts on Thursday and today he provided us with the opening statement he intends to make. In that statement, he outlines some of the reasons for those overruns. In the acute hospitals area, the figure last year was €139 million and the director general provides a breakdown in that regard. There were income...