Results 17,401-17,420 of 45,789 for speaker:Simon Harris

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

Simon Harris: The Deputy has been pursuing this for some time so I will not go back over old ground other than to make two brief points. Under the national development plan, we are planning to move all of our stand-alone maternity hospitals to the site of an acute adult hospital. The Deputy will be aware of plans to move Limerick maternity hospital to University Hospital Limerick, Holles Street maternity...

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

Simon Harris: I will start with the Deputy's final question. The plan this year, for the first time in many years, is to have fewer patients waiting for an outpatient appointment by the end of the year than at the start of the year. I accept that is not a radical advance but it will be the first year in a number of years that we will end the year with fewer patients waiting for an outpatient appointment...

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

Simon Harris: I know that the Deputy would never mean to be flippant but regarding her comments on the ribbon cutting at Connolly Hospital, I answered a question on this last week and will repeat the response today. The opening of Connolly Hospital this summer, at the end of July, will result in an additional 6,000 children being seen through outpatient clinics there. Additional children will benefit...

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

Simon Harris: Yes, but the Deputy also asked how we would fund the deal. That is the point to which I am referring. The deal will be partially funded through some of the reforms to the nurses have signed up through acceptance of the ballot. I will ask the director general about targets and implementation.

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

Simon Harris: If the Deputy thinks I am on the road to Damascus, some Members in the Oireachtas are still googling it to find out where it is before they even get on the road. I very clearly nailed my colours to the mast long before any de Buitléir report that I do not believe such a position was appropriate. Deputy O'Reilly would never do it but she could never cast any doubt over my position or...

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

Simon Harris: Whether we are talking about a children's hospital, a maternity hospital or an adult-----

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

Simon Harris: That is fine. I am basically saying that regardless of the hospital, the rules will be the same. If the rule is that there should be no private practice in public hospitals, there will be no private practice in any public hospital, whether it is the children's hospital or elsewhere. In fairness to people developing hospitals, that is not the position now and our consultants are not...

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...