Results 101-120 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Written Answers — Croke Park Agreement: Croke Park Agreement (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Public Service Agreement 2010-2014 (the "Croke Park Agreement") enables the introduction of significant transformation in the health sector. This is essential to maintain and improve the quality of services while achieving an ongoing reduction in the cost of delivery of public services. The Agreement also provides a framework for implementing the changes agreed. This includes a National...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: In early November 2010 I announced that the Government had decided to approve a voluntary early retirement (VER) scheme and a voluntary redundancy (VR) scheme for certain categories of staff in the public health service. The purpose of the schemes was to achieve a permanent reduction in the numbers employed in the public health sector from 2011 onwards and to facilitate health service...

Written Answers — Vaccination Programme: Vaccination Programme (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 14 together. Approximately 650,000 seasonal flu vaccines were delivered to the HSE in September 2010 and have already been distributed to GPs and HSE sites. The HSE is in the process of drawing down a further 100,000 vaccines which were part of the contingency arrangements within the same contract. The HSE will also deliver supplies of Pandemrix, one of...

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: A number of priority developments are complete - the Limerick trauma theatre and Nenagh endoscopy suite, or underway in the Mid West region to support the reconfiguration of hospital services. In particular the development of a new critical care block at a cost of €35m is a key component in the reconfiguration project. Construction of this facility is underway and is intended to be...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The report on Cardiovascular Health Policy 2010-2019 recommended that stroke services be reconfigured into stroke networks, with a number of hospitals working together to provide the comprehensive range of services needed for optimal stroke care and working closely with community services. The Health Service Executive (HSE) has appointed two lead clinicians within the Directorate of...

Written Answers — Medical Cards: Medical Cards (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: Final end of year figures for Medical Cards and GP Visit Cards will be available later this month. At the 1st December 2010 a total of 1,611,138 persons had medical cards and 116,399 had GP Visit cards. The HSE National Service Plan 2011 anticipates that by the end of 2011 the number of persons with Medical Cards will rise to 1,860,087 and that the number with GP Visit cards will increase...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: My Department recently completed a review of the eligibility framework which is contained in the Health Act 1970. This was a complex process and took longer than expected partly on account of the range and span of services involved, the significant developments in service delivery and technology that have occurred since the Health Act 1970, and more recent policy and service developments such...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: In accordance with the committment in the Government's Implementation Plan for the recommendations of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (The Ryan Commission), the Government provided an amount of €15m in 2010 to further the actions outlined in the Ryan Commission Implementation Plan with priority being given to the recruitment of an additional 200 social workers. Further additional...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Government has made clear that a critical part of its strategy to restore the public finances is to achieve sustainability in the cost of delivering public services relative to State revenues. To help achieve this goal, it will be necessary to restructure and reorganise the public service and to reduce public service numbers over the coming years. The appointment of senior management...

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Quality and Clinical Care Directorate, led by Dr Barry White, is charged with improving and standardising the delivery of clinical care. The work of Quality and Clinical Care Directorate is based on three main objectives: · To improve the quality of care · To improve access to all services · To improve cost effectiveness. Each of the programmes is led by a team of national...

Written Answers — Accident and Emergency Services: Accident and Emergency Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 22, 28, 51, 63, 66 and 67 together. The HSE has stated that the Acute Services Division of the Integrated Services Directorate has not received any reports on whether the recent water restrictions have adversely affected the functioning of emergency departments. The waiting times for patients attending Emergency Departments in many hospitals during the first...

Written Answers — Hospital Staff: Hospital Staff (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: One of the main recommendations of the National Task Force on Medical Staffing in 2003 was to increase the number of consultants and to reduce the number of NCHD posts in order to create a consultant-provided service. The Health Service Executive has advised that there are currently 2,439 approved consultant posts. The number of consultants employed as at 30 November 2010 was 2,450. This...

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 26 and 75 together. In early November 2010 I announced that the Government had decided to approve a voluntary early retirement (VER) scheme and a voluntary redundancy (VR) scheme for certain categories of staff in the public health service. The purpose of the schemes was to achieve a permanent reduction in the numbers employed in the public health sector from...

Written Answers — Hospital Accommodation: Hospital Accommodation (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: As this is a service matter, it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply.

Written Answers — Garda Vetting of Personnel: Garda Vetting of Personnel (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: Garda vetting is a pre-employment check carried out if a prospective employee, volunteer or student on placement will have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults. There is no proposal to extend this category of employee. Garda vetting provides for the disclosure by the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) to the prospective employer of details of prosecutions and convictions of...

Written Answers — Infectious Diseases: Infectious Diseases (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The Health Service Executive (HSE) is responsible for the monitoring of infectious diseases in the country. The latest data which the HSE has available for the 2010/2011 flu season is that as of 9th January 2011 a total of 985 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza have been reported in Ireland, of which 796 were H1N1. A total of 393 patients have been hospitalised with flu and 72 have been...

Written Answers — National Treatment Purchase Fund: National Treatment Purchase Fund (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The National Treatment Purchase Fund's primary role is provide treatment for those public patients waiting longest for surgery or diagnostic services principally, through providing additional treatment capacity, largely from private hospitals. Its discrete budget ensures that these resources are used for elective activity and not diverted. The Fund is obliged as a matter of policy, to...

Written Answers — General Practitioner Co-operatives: General Practitioner Co-operatives (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 37 and 57 together. General Practitioner (GP) out-of-hours co-operatives are an important part of our primary care services. While there is no obligation on GPs to participate in co-operatives, GPs contracted under the General Medical Services Scheme must make suitable arrangements to enable contact to be made with them (or a locum/deputy) for emergencies...

Written Answers — Hospital Staff: Hospital Staff (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: The HSE has advised that as of 11th January 2010, approximately 150 of 4,638 Non Consultant Hospital Doctor (NCHD) were vacant. Locations experiencing particular difficulties are Drogheda (Anaesthetics and Paediatrics), Letterkenny (Emergency Medicine and Medicine), Limerick (Emergency Medicine) and Beaumont (Emergency Medicine). The moratorium on public sector recruitment is not a factor in...

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (13 Jan 2011)

Mary Harney: As this is a service matter, it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply.