Written Answers Nos. 290-312
290. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the status of the report of the National Radiation Therapist Review Group; the timeline for publication; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17147/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraFirstly, I would like to acknowledge the incredibly important role of Radiation Therapists in the provision of cancer services in this country.
The independent review of the Radiation Therapist profession was agreed between the HSE, Department of Health and SIPTU, under the auspices of the WRC. This strategic review has been considering issues such as organisation structure, career development in line with Health and Social Care Professional Frameworks, strategic workforce planning and recruitment and retention strategies.
The Radiation Therapist review commenced in December 2022 and a report including recommendations is currently being drafted.
All outcomes of the review will be given due consideration by the Department of Health. Implementation of any recommendations from the review are subject to approval from the Departments of Health and Public Expenditure and Reform in line with public service pay policy.
291. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) can expect to receive an urgent appointment for surgery in Cork University Hospital, given two surgery appointments have been cancelled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17148/24]
Amharc ar fhreagra“As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
292. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Health the number of days that triage or assessment rooms in CUH ED have been occupied by patients on trolleys, or were unusable for any other reason, in the past 12 weeks, by reason, in tabular form. [17152/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
293. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that nurses are forced to triage patients in ED waiting rooms due to overcrowding in CUH; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17153/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the deputy directly.
294. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Health if a bed will be made available through emergency community support for a person in County Kerry (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17156/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
295. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health if he will intervene to secure treatment for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17168/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
296. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health if he will intervene to secure urgent scoliosis treatment for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17169/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
297. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of child psychologists working in County Wexford; if he is aware of a pending staff departure; and if there is a candidate lined up to replace the outgoing clinician. [17175/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
298. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Health the status of the provision of a new theatre at Kilcreene Hospital, Kilkenny, which was included in the HSE capital programme announced in 2023 and was granted a capital allocation in the same year; if the project review number 5, which is approved to go to tender, has been considered by the national director for capital and estates; the indicative timeframe for completion of the project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17178/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible
299. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Health if a person (details supplied) will be admitted as a matter of urgency to Dún Laoghaire rehabilitation clinic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17179/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
300. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Health if the urgent eye surgery required in the case of a person (details supplied) will be arranged immediately at WUH, as the surgery was to be carried out in January 2024. [17180/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
301. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Health if the urgent surgery required in the case of a child (details supplied) will be arranged immediately at St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17181/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
302. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Health when the ban on recruitment to the HSE will be lifted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17195/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
303. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Health if he will outline which public hospitals in Ireland are considered to be teaching hospitals; and if he will outline figures as to the number of nurses placed in each hospital in an average year, in tabular form. [17214/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
304. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Health if siblings in sixth class in a primary school (details supplied) can be provided with dental treatment by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17216/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
306. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the waiting lists for adult assessments, such as ASD and ADHD, in the public health system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17223/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
307. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on a patient who needed the services of Shannondoc in north Clare, was told they had to make their way to the service to get treatment and Shannondoc refused to do a call-out to the house; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17225/24]
Amharc ar fhreagra308. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health if Shannondoc will arrange for a GP to call to a patient's home if they cannot find transport into the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17226/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 307 and 308 together.
GPs contracted under the GMS Scheme are required to make arrangements for their patients to be able to make contact outside of normal practice hours. Commonly, GPs will work with out of hours co-operatives to meet this requirement. In the Mid-West region, the out-of-hours arrangements are discharged through Shannondoc.
While GP out of hours cooperatives such as Shannondoc are private organisations, the HSE provides significant funding to support them through service level agreements. As this a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter, as soon as possible.
309. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health to provide an update regarding the delay in establishing a statutory register of counsellors and psychotherapists in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17228/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, the Health and Social Care Professionals Council and Registration Boards, collectively known as CORU, are responsible for protecting the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct, education, training, and competence amongst the professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act (2005).
CORU’s regulatory model is based on protection of title; once a profession is regulated it becomes a criminal offence to use a professional title if a person is not a CORU registrant.
Each profession designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act has its own independent registration board with statutory responsibility for:
• Establishing and maintaining the register of members for that profession;
• Recognising qualifications gained outside the State;
• Approving and monitoring education and training programmes for entry to the register;
• Setting the code of professional conduct and ethics giving guidance to professionals on Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Regulations to designate the professions of counsellor and psychotherapist under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended) were made by the previous Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, in 2019. The Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board (CPRB) was established in February 2019. Its membership comprises practitioners, representatives from education and training, and lay members.
The work of the CPRB includes consideration of the titles to be protected and the minimum qualifications to be required of existing practitioners and the qualifications that will be required for future graduates. The work of the CPRB is significantly more challenging than it is for registration boards for some of the more established professions owing to the different and complex pathways into these professions, the variety of titles used, and the variety and number of courses and course providers.
The CPRB undertook an extensive research process to inform the drafting of standards and criteria. This included a review of contemporary evidence-informed academic literature, an examination of comparator international professional standards, and understanding the contemporary practice of the profession in Ireland. Key stakeholders, including the public (through a public consultation process), are also part of the drafting process.
Throughout the course of 2022 and 2023, the CPRB drafted threshold level standards of knowledge, skills and professional behaviour – its Standards of Proficiency – and the systems and processes that education providers must have in place to ensure consistent and effective delivery of graduates who have achieved the Standards of Proficiency – its Criteria for Education and Training Programmes. Two sets of these requirements were drafted: one for counsellors and one for psychotherapists representing the first attempt to establish distinct standards for each profession in Ireland and the first effort to standardise threshold level education and training requirements for entry to each profession.
The public consultation on the draft Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes ran for 12 weeks from 4 September until 1 December 2023. As part of this consultation, the CPRB encouraged feedback from all stakeholders, including members of the professions, education providers, employers, professional and representative bodies, as well as members of the public. The public consultation is the mechanism through which professional bodies, as well as other stakeholders, are given an opportunity to provide their views on the draft standards.
I am informed that the CPRB will consider all submissions very carefully in formalising Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes for the psychotherapy profession. CORU, on behalf of the CPRB, will brief my Department on the outcome of the public consultation in due course.
310. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health if he has read the final report of the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, known as the Cass review, published recently in relation to sex-change treatments being offered to children in the United Kingdom; what changes it will bring about to his Department's position on this issue and specifically the referral of Irish children to the UK to receive such treatments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17231/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am aware of the publication of the Cass report and this report as well as other emerging and evolving international evidence will be considered in the context of a new clinical programme for gender healthcare which has been initiated by the HSE, and which will, over the next two years, develop an updated clinical model for gender healthcare services.
While the model of care is being developed, adults will continue to receive specialist gender healthcare in the adult gender clinic based in the Ireland East Hospital Group and children and young people will have their endocrinology specialist care within Children's Health Ireland. As yet, there is no specialist psychiatry and psychology service in Ireland to help assess and treat children and young people with gender dysphoria, this service will be available through TAS and the current pathway directs referrals to the new UK NHS Gender Incongruence Service for children and young people who will triage these referrals to one of the newly developed services in London and Liverpool/Manchester due to open shortly. This service will work with CHI if endocrine review is required.
I welcome the development of a model of care which will deliver a high quality seamless and integrated service for people with gender identity issues.
311. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Health for an update on the case of a person (details supplied); and when they can expect an appointment with a neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. [17255/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible
312. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the extent, if any, to which cosmetic surgery might be offered to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17268/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
