Results 17,241-17,260 of 45,622 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: That is not a fair representation. My understanding is the consultants will pay for the use of those facilities.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I do but we cannot agree on everything. It would be very boring.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: It would be terrible if we agreed on everything. It would not do the Deputy any good.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: While I take the point Senator Colm Burke makes passionately about the importance of service outside Dublin, including in Cork, I must point out that we are talking here about national projects. While they might be located in Dublin, they are national services. For example, 3,081 sick children from Cork attended our children's hospitals in Dublin over the past two years. As such, while the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: The Senator is not making the point, but it frustrates me when people suggest that all of the projects are in Dublin, when they are in fact national projects that will transform the lives of children, including children from Cork, whose parents have had to sleep on cold floors overnight. Every child will have a single en suiteroom and proper facilities. However, Senator Burke's point about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Dolan for his questions. I will respond to some of the issues raised and I am sure my colleagues from the HSE, as well as the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, will also respond. The Senator makes a very interesting point about reform and transformation. He points out that the HSE was set up 15 years ago and asks why we have not got there yet. While Senator Dolan...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: No, the Senator did not do, as I already said. He asked why reform and transformation have not happened after 15 years. Having been three years in my current job, I want to give the Senator my perspective on that question. It has not happened because of a failure of collective political leadership and a failure to both make and stick with decisions on health. In fairness to people in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I am almost afraid to endeavour to answer the questions considering that the Deputy answered some of them more ably than I could. I reassure him that it remains my position to advance the restructuring of the health service in line with the Sláintecare report. Regional integrated care organisations - we will not call them RICOs because that relates to racketeering in South America -...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I will do my very best. I thank the Deputy for these questions. I am grateful to have the opportunity to discuss cannabis because there has been a great deal of coverage of it. It is important for me to set the record straight on this. There are no plans to legalise cannabis or any other illicit drugs in our country. What there are, though, are two important and distinct streams of work....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I fully agree with that. I believe the Deputy and I agree on this. The lock them up mentality has dominated many of our debates on tackling difficult social issues - lock them up, brush the problem under the carpet, pretend it does not exist and send it abroad. We have heard all sorts of different versions when people have come upon hard times in this country. We must face up to drug...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: Folic acid is part of the women's health action plan and the contraception working group will report to me in September, both in advance of the budget.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I acknowledge Deputy Brassil's genuine interest in, and advocacy for, the need to do something on biosimilars. We need to pick up the pace on this and we will take away what he said on that. I assure the Deputy it is a priority for us collectively because, as he said, there is a chance to make significant savings for the health service while also doing the right thing by patients. On the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: That is an important point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: To be clear, the HSE leadership team did not reject Spinraza last month. It deferred the decision to early June. The HSE leadership chose not to reject or accept but to come back to the issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: No. I signed Ireland up to BeNeLuxA. What is correct to say is that the other countries in BeNeLuxA, through their own processes, have bought it. It is not correct to say BeNeLuxA has bought it and we have opted out. The Senator is right that the other BeNeLuxA members have reimbursed the drug through their own processes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I will call on Dr. Henry to respond in a moment because he has a good knowledge of the HSE's response to this. I had a good meeting with OACS Ireland. I have told OACS in person and in writing that there are three priorities. The first has been to ensure that Ireland acts speedily on the EMA advice and warnings, which we have been doing and I think considerable progress has been made in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I agree. The issue that needs to be considered before we establish any inquiry is whether it would provide any added benefit considering this was not a specifically Irish issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I need to consider that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion (22 May 2019)

Simon Harris: I do not know the specific case to which the Senator refers but we need to be careful about the difference between misdiagnosis and the limitations of medicine and of screening and diagnostic tools. We are beginning to have a big debate on this. I am starting to wonder if we are reaching a point in modern medicine where doctors use the tools available and some of those tools have...