Results 1,841-1,860 of 15,268 for speaker:Kathleen Lynch

Written Answers — Department of Health: Drugs Payment Scheme Expenditure (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: Under the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for the administration of the primary care schemes, including the Drugs Payment Scheme; therefore the matter has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy. If he has not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days, please contact my Private Office and...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Funding (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: As the Deputy's question relates to service matters, I have arranged for the question to be referred to the Health Service Executive (HSE) for direct reply to the Deputy. If the Deputy has not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days, he can contact my Private Office and they will follow the matter up with the HSE.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Card Data (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: Neither the Department of Health nor the HSE records population data. I can, however, advise the Deputy that at 2 September this year, over 15,700 persons aged 80 years and over held a GP visit card.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Dental Services (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: As this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply to the Deputy. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Card Eligibility (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: The Health Service Executive has been asked to examine this matter and to reply to the Deputy as soon as possible. The Health Service Executive operates the General Medical Services scheme, which includes medical cards and GP visit cards, under the Health Act 1970, as amended. It has established a dedicated contact service for members of the Oireachtas specifically for queries relating to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Mental Health Services Funding (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: The Irish National Dementia Strategy was launched in December 2014. This delivers on a commitment in the Programme for Government to develop a national Alzheimer’s and other dementias strategy to increase awareness, ensure early diagnosis and intervention and develop enhanced community based services. The Department of Health and the HSE have agreed a joint initiative with the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Services for People with Disabilities (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual. As this is a...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Home Help Service Provision (7 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: As the Deputy's question relates to service matters, I have arranged for the question to be referred to the Health Service Executive (HSE) for direct reply to the Deputy. If the Deputy has not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days, he can contact my Private Office and they will follow the matter up with the HSE.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: I wish to speak about two areas, one of which is the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. At the start of this year I sat around the table with the directorate with responsibility for mental health - of both adults and children - to examine the waiting list, which was substantial and stood at 3,206. The group did an incredible job of analysing the waiting list to identify the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: I will reply to some of the outstanding questions asked by Deputy Ó Caoláin on the CAMHS service. I am not certain we will ever reach the point where a service of this nature, that deals with very vulnerable children and their families, is perfect but we are doing a variety of things. Targeted interventions will happen and we are going to build up services in primary care,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: I understood that. Deputy Mitchell O'Connor asked about the registration of nurses, which was a huge difficulty. Some 1,133 nurses were registered between January and September this year and a further 51 individuals, not all from within the EU or who have been previously registered in this country, have entered the mix. The Department has sanctioned an additional 16 posts to the nursing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: All I can say is that the letter to which the Chairman refers may be a little bit previous. At a recent meeting we tried to address the issue of the call centre and the additional staff on the nursing registration board and that will have an impact. Our chief nursing officer is very much on top of this because it is what she does best. We might get a further, more up-to-date briefing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: Even where there are vacancies for GPs, and there are more difficulties in some areas than in others, those areas are still covered by a locum service. There is no area that does not have coverage because of a vacancy, though we would much rather have a permanent person in post.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: I have previously stated - I am sure people in the deaf community are aware of this - that I believe deaf-blind is different. It can be very isolating. Communication in this area is a huge problem but we are working on it. Work is also being done on definitions. I am told that in the context of the database on disabilities, we need to focus our attention on gathering information on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: On Deputy's Neville question regarding recruitment, of the 1,144 development posts approved for mental health from 2012 to 2014, 405, or 96%, of the 416 development posts for 2012 have started. Some 427, or 88%, of the 477.5 development posts for 2013 have started and of the 215 development posts for 2014, 81 have been recruited, of which 77 have started. As of 31 July 2015, a further 88.5...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: We have been working on this for almost nine months now. We hope that Sea Change's budget will be dealt with in a more constructive fashion and in a manner such that it will not have to be applied for every year. I agree with Deputy Neville that we need to do that because Sea Change is a huge asset. Deputy Byrne raised the issue of personal assistant hours. It may appear as if they are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: Sorry, Senator. I am a bit previous.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: To a greater extent, it very much depends on economic circumstances and also on the applications and the needs involved.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: Absolutely. Some people could not function without that 24-7 care. That is important to note. Other people will simply need help getting dressed and getting out in the morning to go to work, in some cases, and will need help on returning home in the evening. It is very much individualised. It is a bespoke service. We should be very conscious that it makes the difference between people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Services: Quarterly Update (6 Oct 2015)

Kathleen Lynch: To reply to Deputy Dan Neville's question about selling the old psychiatric hospitals, as he will know, they were always situated in the most magnificent grounds. When in opposition, the Deputy and I always made the point that basing the funding for mental health services on the vagaries of the property market was never a good idea, as we saw when the market crashed. Thankfully, it is now...