Results 521-540 of 4,510 for speaker:Cathal Crowe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: I have read the opening statements and have some questions. Last year, 13,300 patients in the acute hospital system had sepsis, of whom approximately 2,700 died. Are there regional variances in that? Are there certain hospital groups in which there are peaks and troughs in those figures? I do not like to describe loss of life in that way but are there higher incidences in certain parts of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: Where are there high and low incidences? I know it is a small snapshot but for the benefit of the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: We are not privy to all the protocols and that is where we trust our medical professionals but surely there is a laboratory test or blood sampling. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: How frequently would it require a blood sample to go to a laboratory? My angle is that some hospitals, for example University Maternity Hospital Limerick, have no in-hospital laboratory. I witnessed this at first-hand when my wife was in labour. There is a ludicrous situation where taxis have to bring blood samples across to the laboratory in UHL and results can take a few hours. I heard...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: Dr. Henry's colleagues are going to come in-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: My final question relates to the time when a patients are admitted into hospital, usually through accident and emergency, triaged and a few hours go by before they are properly seen. It is a big bugbear of mine that we do not have a national digital patient record system. We have different hospital groups and paper charts but people often are so unwell when they present that they are unable...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: With the greatest respect, a member of my family passed away five weeks ago. When being discharged from the acute system, he said he had overcome a lot and that he had cancer a few years ago. You could see people's jaws drop because they did not know this man had the type of cancer he had. We are not medical people; the medical people sit across from us in a hospital environment. You...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: I did my own research on sepsis. Sepsis itself is not contagious but some of the infections that lead to sepsis can be contagious. Where there is sepsis in the hospital environment, we all know how MRSA and the winter vomiting bug are dealt with, but are there certain protocols that happen in the wider hospital context? I am particularly thinking of hospital systems such as University...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Awareness, Prevention and Services for the Treatment of Sepsis: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: Is it a mandatory question in triage? Is a patient in triage always asked whether he or she had sepsis previously, given there is a 40% repeat incidence?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: I welcome the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. It is lovely to see a young member of his family here today. I welcome the young man who has joined us in the room. I also welcome his officials. No. 1 is consideration of 2023 Supplementary Estimates. The purpose of our meeting is to consider the Supplementary Estimate for public services, Vote...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: I thank the Minister. I remind everyone that subhead D relates to the communications brief of our committee. Sometimes at these committee meetings, members go a bit broader with questions. I will leave it up to the Minister as to whether he wishes to pursue them. If we are going to go broad with questions, though, I ask that we not go too broad. We have several members here in the...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: The Deputy should keep within the-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: I see Deputy O'Rourke is online. Does he wish to contribute? While we are waiting for him, I might come in with a few questions. I thank the Minister for being here at our select committee meeting. I also thank him for his opening statement. I have a few small questions. It is great to hear that progress is being made on rural broadband. I am seeing that progress in my own locality....

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: As broadband is rolled out they generally take the path of least resistance. They are certainly still cabling over ground a lot in rural areas, which makes sense as it is quick. I can think of some instances down home where they will go the easy route to get connected quickly. However, in urban areas I think it is a standard from the Minister's Department that they will try to duct and...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: Yes.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: I turn to the realm of cybersecurity. It is good that progress is being made on the National Cyber Security Centre with an operational window for full opening of spring 2024. The last time this came up before the committee, we spoke about a certain amount of cybercrime is domestic in origin. There was the infamous attack on the HSE systems, which came from overseas. How much collaboration...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (15 Nov 2023)

Cathal Crowe: Communications are colocated on high infrastructure. I refer specifically to mobile phone and signal antennae colocated on wind turbines. I do not know if the Minister is willing to answer this, as I am broadening the debate out a little. The new guidelines for wind energy are relevant to colocated infrastructure. This goes back well before the Minister's Department. I think it was at...