Results 101-120 of 3,336 for speaker:Kate O'Connell

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: I thank Mr. O'Brien for his presentation. He referred to the cost of equipment and said, to paraphrase, we bought a lot during the boom and it could do with being replaced. Why are we buying equipment? Normal process in businesses is that large plant would be leased and maintained by a service provider. Why is this not common practice in the HSE? I understand some is going on, however it...

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: That is not what I am suggesting. We cannot have every hospital group performing complex brain surgery.

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: That is just not possible and we all get it, but Mr. O'Brien has said there were issues in the past. Do we have evidence of this within the 17 groups referred to by the Chairman?

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: What deficiencies were identified? Perhaps we might look at them to see if we could work through them. The matter has been well discussed at this committee and accepted that we cannot have every service provided in every area. That is the principle behind the hospital trusts. Why is it that the population cannot be defined, with specialist treatment services being provided somewhere else?...

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: Mr. O'Brien has stated it might be difficult to visualise. None of us has any difficulty in visualising it. Although I do not intend to speak for the committee, we all get the idea that there must be a grade 4 hospital and an academic centre. We cannot just draw straight lines between places. The point is that there is a hospital group, as well as a certain amount of CHOs. The borders...

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: What are the impediments that Mr. O'Brien experiences in his position, as opposed to the views of the person who made the decision? Will he list the impediments to getting the borders aligned as they are in the mid-west? How can one transfer funding from an acute setting to a primary care setting if part of the CHO belongs to somebody else? How does one track that money and make sure it...

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: That is not the question I asked. I am asking about the impediments to having the borders aligned.

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: It is not the groups that I want to change but the community health organisation borders so that they will fit, like they do in the mid-west, everywhere. Can we not follow the mid-west example everywhere?

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: The amount of waiting time has been reduced. Will Mr. O'Brien elaborate on that? From where to where has it been reduced and what would Mr. O'Brien see as ideal?

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: Does Mr. O'Brien have a ballpark figure? Have we cut it in half?

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Health Service Reform: HSE (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: It seems strange that Mr. O'Brien would cite it as a positive in his opening statement if he does not actually know any-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Misuse of Drugs (Supervised Injecting Facilities) Bill 2016: Discussion (30 Nov 2016)

Kate O'Connell: I apologise for being late but this meeting clashed with another meeting next door. I do not have the gift of bilocation yet. I have quickly read the presentation. I am, by profession, a community pharmacist and I originally come from the midlands. Twelve years ago I worked in both Athlone and Portlaoise at the height of the crisis. Beforehand I spent a short time studying in the UK...

Cannabis for Medicinal Use (Regulations) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (1 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: I thank Deputy Gino Kenny for bringing this Bill forward. It is an important step along the road to improving the health care and lives of many of our citizens. I believe the Bill is very well intentioned. Elements of the Bill have my full support, particularly the parts relating to the provision of medicinal cannabis for the treatment of people and to alleviate the pain they are...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: EU Directorate-General Economic and Financial Affairs: Discussion (6 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Civil Liability (Amendment) Bill 2015: Discussion (8 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: I wish to refer to some of the points raised by Deputy Louise O'Reilly. Reference was made to this being a consultant's problem. The question is: who is in charge? I am mindful of the fact that there are recruitment challenges within the HSE and I am seeking the views of the deputations since they represent the people who work in hospitals. Let us suppose a hospital consultant is in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill: Discussion (14 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: My first question relates to page 3 and the reference to creating an offence in relation to the buying and selling of personal health information by those who obtain it in the course of employment, business or professional capacity. I will outline my experience of a GMS doctor with a medical card list, even though the list system has been deregulated in recent years. Let us say that a GP has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill: Discussion (14 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: A couple of patients may be seen at the HIV services in St. James's Hospital but that would have nothing to do with the community setting. They do not want people in the community setting to know anything about their HIV status. With stigma, how do we protect the patient's right to keep that as their own private business and limit the amount of people who can access such data? Sharing data...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill: Discussion (14 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: My question on GPs was specifically in regard to profiting. The question of consent was more to do with who accesses people's information. One cannot just accept that everybody within the health service will adhere to patient confidentiality. There is a course there for patients.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill: Discussion (14 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill: Discussion (14 Dec 2016)

Kate O'Connell: In real life I have had an experience of a patient who attends the HIV services in St. James's Hospital. They were supplied with their drugs there and I had no idea the man was HIV positive. He deals with me for other aspects of his life. It is none of my business, it just came up one day. My point, however, is that he genuinely set about not wanting anyone in the community setting to...