Results 161-180 of 1,101,277 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:Dara Calleary OR speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Cathal Crowe) in 'Committee meetings'
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Cathal Crowe: I will hopefully come back in later, but will ask the Minister a final question. I have long been speaking about Ennis General Hospital and elective surgeries being suspended there for ten weeks. Surgery took place on perhaps four days in ten weeks. The theatre nurses, who are highly skilled, were redeployed to other functions in general medical wards. This is not personal, but the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
David Cullinane: Is he here?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
David Cullinane: It depends on how you look at it but it is somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 people. It is a minimum of 400,000 up to 500,000, depending on the catchment area. If the mid-west region had two emergency departments, it would mean the population per emergency department would be 200,000. If we take, for example, the south west, it has four emergency departments with one emergency...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I might ask Ms Broderick to speak to that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Cathal Crowe: They are not carrying bedpans or going to the general wards, but they are somewhere.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Cathal Crowe: What are those hours?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Cathal Crowe: I thank Ms Broderick.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: The short answer is that I agree with the Deputy. I agree with the Sláintecare recommendation. I agree with her point when it comes to the health service and the wider public sector. It is something that should be considered in the next programme for Government, whoever may be putting that together. Again, I am not an employment lawyer, but I have learned more about it over the past...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: Finally, we have sought to address it within employment law within the new public-only consultant contract, which does contain more provisions around performance management and accountability.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I could not agree more. The clinical director role does not do what most of us think it was meant to do, which is to performance manage. Obviously, we champion patient safety, but within that we must make sure the clinical teams within the organisations are operating to the best extent possible. There are some clinical directors who do that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: I apologise for interrupting. What I can tell the Deputy is that in the context of the new clinical director role, there is a significant focus on exactly the point she is making.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: If it is okay, I will ask Ms Broderick to speak to that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: Can I respond to that, Chair?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for that. I am more than happy to take responsibility, obviously, but in the interest of fairness, when I was appointed, there were approximately 400 beds in UHL. We have added 118. There are 16 more that are going to open this year, 96 more in quarter 2 of next year, another 96 after that - they are under construction - and a further 84. I am more than happy to take...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: Obviously, I have taken action on it but in fairness, the Deputy's question is why now? It is because we were in the middle of adding the greatest number of-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: Yes, that is right, and I have asked the same group, HIQA, to now come back and do a thorough analysis and if that is the case, report back on where it would go and would it be attached-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: That is exactly the way I was characterising the Deputy's question. It is because two and a half years ago, we were in the middle of a massive expansion of capacity in the mid-west, not just in UHL and the other regional hospitals but in the community. We have opened five primary care centres and a lot more. This time last year, the emergency department situation in UHL was moving in the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: I will have-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: There is definitely a distance and geography issue. I spend as much time as I can in west Clare and I know from my time there and talking to people in Ennis hospital that there is real concern at the distance. Deputy Shortall very fairly referred to HIQA. Its view was that the scale of Ennis hospital meant that it could not safely support an emergency department. That is exactly why I...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Senator. I am expecting a preliminary briefing on the HIQA report in February and the final report will be in May. I applaud the Deputy's question on consultant contracts and 24-7 on-site rostered consultant presence in our hospitals with emergency departments. The new consultant contract doubles the normal rostered times, which was a really important move. Our view was...