Results 61-80 of 1,119,192 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Martin Browne OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Michael Moynihan OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Mary Butler OR speaker:Malcolm Noonan OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Chris Andrews OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:Joan Collins OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Niall Collins) in 'Committee meetings'

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, before we can do it fully.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Mary Butler: I wish to come in on community beds. In next year’s budget, there will be an additional 174 community beds. I asked the HSE, when we were going through the CNUs, that instead of just replacing the beds, we start turning the dial. For example, in Clonmel CNU, 50 beds will be provided, of which 32 are additional. In St. Columba’s in Thomastown, there will be 95 beds, of which...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The officials will correct me if I am wrong but I think that is the Brexit adjustment for Dublin Airport and the two ports.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: In the agreement with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, earlier this year, we got agreement to permanently fund about 4,000 staff for whom there were no wages allocated by Government. They fall into two groups. The first is the extra 2,000 the HSE hired last year. There was no funding for that. The HSE obviously paid their wages, but it was not funded to pay their wages. Therefore, we have...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: We could add 10,000 staff to the HSE today who would undoubtedly provide better and faster patient care – another 10,000.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: We have to hire within the funded allocation.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Chair. I agree with everything he said, particularly when we look at the challenges the Government faced coming into office. As he very fairly stated, many of those challenges still exist. What we have been working on every day is to address them and to do a small number of important things, namely make it quicker for people to access a doctor, a nurse or a therapist, make it...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: In Tallaght University Hospital, just in the lifetime of this Government, the increase in the nursing workforce has been over 50%. There are an extra 620 nurses working in Tallaght University Hospital today who were not there four years ago. That is a vast increase, and they are doing great work. As a result of this increase, the waiting times at the hospital are falling and the surgical...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Mary Butler: Could I come in briefly on two things we have done as regards older people that have made a big difference? Earlier this year we completed the nationwide roll-out of mobile X-rays to people in nursing homes. It makes no difference which nursing home you are in - public, private or voluntary. We started on a pilot project but we have used it across the whole country now over 10,000 times....

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Mary Butler: I will come in there as it is something that overlaps both our briefs. As the Deputy would know, in 2023, I launched the clinical programme for dual diagnosis, which supports service users who present with mental health and a substance use disorder. In the mental health budget, there were 210 new whole-time equivalents. Ten of those posts are specifically for dual diagnosis to start up two...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: We do not have those figures with us.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: We are going to see changes next year. The budget for next year will have a subheading for each of the six regions. We are moving to regional reporting, which is only one thing, but it is an important change in the system and in how everybody thinks about it. Work is ongoing on healthcare econometrics and what the demand is region by region. There will be adjustments over time on that....

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The regional executive officers have already been given that authority. It marks a substantial shift. I will give one example to illustrate it. The Wicklow town primary care centre urgently needs therapists. During the embargo, one of the major hospitals in the same region hired quite a number of staff. Not only did the hospital have no money and no sanction to hire those staff, it was...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Mary Butler: I am seeing the structures changing. I would have always dealt with the head of older persons, the head of mental health and the head of disabilities across each area. They have changed now already. There is a new integrated healthcare area, IHA. Our area, which was CHO 5 and CHO 6 combined, is now called Dublin and South East. There are now three IHAs there and they have broken up the...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I am taking it very seriously. We have had several debates in the Dáil on exactly this, which I think the Deputy might have been involved in. I wrote to the Chief Medical Officer recently to ask for a full review. There are certain areas, particularly in more disadvantaged communities, where they simply do not have enough staff. There are other areas where they are well resourced....

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The scheme is GP access to diagnostics. I will get the exact figure for the Deputy but I think it is approximately €46 million this year. It is very expensive. It is brand new. We started it in 2021. It is very expensive but has been very popular with GPs. To be honest, it is probably one of the reasons we see such an increase in referrals to the outpatient lists because more...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: If it is a referral from a GP, private health insurance is not needed. It is free.

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Certainly, for the ones I have listed. There may be ones, cardiac CT, for example, that are not covered. I imagine there will be some tests that are not covered but the ones I have listed are.