Results 81-100 of 23,533 for speaker:Róisín Shortall

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: Obviously, there is a considerable lack of patient data. We have been able to get our hands on the basic data on staffing of clinics. It would seem that most of the hospitals have between four and five staff associated with their clinic. However, the opening times of the clinics range from two and a half to four hours per week across all the hospitals. That is a very limited time window...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: Limerick has been in the news a lot for some time. I had a question on the number of people on waiting lists and so on. I was told that, in Limerick, nobody is on a waiting list and yet there is a six-month wait time for urgent cases and for non-urgent cases. That logically suggests-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: How there could be nobody on the waiting list. It again points to the dearth of data and the difficulty of doing any kind of analysis on this. What would be best practice for how the clinics should operate, including the staffing complement and the issues they would address with patients?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: My final question is about children. No service seems to be available for children at the moment. The attitude seems to be that children do not get long Covid. Have many people contacted LCAI about children who have the symptoms of long Covid?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: I thank the witnesses for the presentation. I will start on the issue of data, which I spoke about in the previous session. If we do not have decent data, we cannot measure anything and we do not know about performance. Many of the replies I received from the HSE show poor-quality data, and that is not acceptable with an important programme like this one. Why is it that patient-level data...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: But that is not collated. Is that what Dr. Ní Bhriain is saying?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: No, but the trends, the commonalities between various patients, and so on. We do not have any information from the HSE about patients.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: There is no qualitative data.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: How the system is operating is very unsatisfactory. The witnesses referred to the HSE interim model of care, which has been in place since September 2021. One would hope that a great deal has been learned about long Covid since then. Why is the HSE still operating an interim model? Is work on developing a permanent model under way?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: I am sorry, but I am asking about a permanent model. Is work on one under way?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: When?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: Regarding funding, there was a sentence in the opening statement that I did not quite follow. Dr. Ní Bhriain stated: "Initial funding of €2.2 million was agreed for the first year of implementation ... with an overall cost of €6.6 million per annum." Is that an estimate or is the HSE getting €6.6 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: This year, there is funding of €6.6 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: It is difficult to reconcile that with the fact that there are approximately 32 hours of clinic time being provided in total. Why are the hours so limited when there is what would seem to be fairly reasonable funding of €6.6 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: I am sorry, but will Dr. Ní Bhriain explain to us where that funding is going?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: The clinics are open for two and a half to four hours per week. That is limited. For funding of this level, I would have thought there would be more patient-facing time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: Will the witnesses provide a breakdown of how the €6.6 million is spent, please?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: I do not mean now, but could they provide us with a note on the breakdown?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Delivery of Health Services for Patients with Long Covid: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Róisín Shortall: I would expect that data to be provided to us, which has not happened.