Gay Mitchell
Question:198 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps and measures he has taken to improve primary health care since his appointment as Minister for Health and Children. [25493/01]
Written Answers. - Health Services.
I am delighted to inform the Deputy that since my appointment as Minister for Health and Children at the end of January 2000, there have been significant developments in the area of primary care and additional resources have been provided for this purpose. These developments will continue in the context of the new Health Strategy and associated Primary Care Strategy which are due to be published shortly.
The pilot out-of-hours project, CAREDOC, in the South-Eastern Health Board, was already under way at that time and a similar project in the North-Eastern Health Board also started in that year. Both projects have been independently evaluated and the report shows that they are providing appropriate additional out-of-hours general practitioner services to the regions they serve. The recommendations highlighted in the report have been incorporated into the operation plans for the North-Western and Southern Health Board projects – the Southern Health Board project commenced last week. These co-operatives provide significant benefits to both patients and doctors concerned.
Further, in recognition of the role that information and communications technology can and should play in general practice and primary care I have supported a number of initiatives in this area. These include further funding for the National GPIT Group, the roll out of a national IT training programme, and the further development of the national electronics Healthlink project. I have also provided extra funding to the Irish College of General Practitioners to enable them undertake additional education and training programmes which will ultimately translate into better patient care.
From April 2001 all medical card holders are eligible for free nicotine replacement therapy. From 1 March 2000 the second phase of the doubling of the income limits for persons aged 70 years and over in respect of the granting of medical cards came into effect. The third and final phase was effective from 1 March 2001 and, with effect from 1 July 2001, all persons in this age category have an automatic entitlement to medical cards.
Gay Mitchell
Question:199 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps and measures he has taken to improve secondary health care since his appointment as Minister for Health and Children. [25494/01]
The Government is committed to the strategic planning and development of the health service. I am continuing the development and reform of health services begun by my colleague and predecessor in this Government. The following is an outline of some of the key developments in acute hospital services since this Government came into office.
This Government has overseen significant increases in hospital activity levels. In particular there has been a 29% increase in day care activity in hospitals since this Government came into office. The hospital system has continued its high productivity performance in January to June 2001 by recording an overall rise of 5.1% activity increase, including almost 11% growth in day cases. This translates into an extra 22,000 cases treated over the same period last year.
Some £1 billion, 1.27 billion, has been provided under the national development plan for the development of hospital infrastructure. This will allow for the provision of major developments in the acute hospital sector in every region of the country.
I provided a £32 million, 40.631 million, investment package in 2000-2001 which targeted a number of key service areas, including the recruitment of an additional 29 accident and emergency consultants and the contracting of additional private nursing home places.
There has been an increase of about 25% in the numbers employed in the health service since this Government came into office. We now have about 83,000 wholetime equivalent staff working in the health service. This includes an additional 250 consultants, 4,000 nurses, 2,000 paramedical workers and support staff for these professionals in our health system.
Over £60 million, 76.184 million, has been allocated under the National Cancer Strategy since 1997 and an additional 57 consultants, together with support staff, have been approved. Funding has also been provided in the current year to enable a number of health agencies to develop centres of excellence for the care and treatment of symptomatic breast disease. These developments are in addition to the services being provided by BreastCheck, which was launched in October 2000. Up to 30 June last, over 43,000 women had attended for screening.
We are now spending an additional £38 million, 48.250 million, on cardiovascular and cardiac surgery services. Some £34.5 million, 43.805 million, has been allocated this year to provide additional procedures to those on waiting lists. Significant decreases have taken place in the number of patients waiting in the target specialities since June 2000; the number awaiting cardiac surgery is down by 52%, gynaecology is down by 35%, ophthalmology is down by 23%, ortho paedics is down by 14% and ENT is down by 30%.
I have provided for additional investment in areas such as anaesthetics, renal services, ambulance/pre hospital care, heart/lung transplant service, laboratory services and hospital accreditation.
A comprehensive review of bed capacity needs has been conducted by my Department in conjunction with the Department of Finance and in consultation with the social partners. The review has focused primarily on the emerging needs to increase bed capacity and to have a strategic framework in place in terms of the number of additional beds required in the short, medium and longer terms. The review of bed capacity will inform the forthcoming Health Strategy.
The Health Strategy will provide a framework for growth and development of our health services over the coming years. In addition to issues of capacity of services, the strategy will address issues relating to reform and modernisation of the health system. The strategy will outline the direction and scale of development planned in a number of service and professional areas for example acute hospital bed capacity, primary health care, medical manpower, nursing etc. In addition, the strategy will include a plan covering the actions required for its implementation in the short, medium and long-term.