Vol. 524 No. 6
239 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will direct the Eastern Regional Health Authority to give financial assistance to a person (details supplied) in Dublin 6W who is an 82 year old medical card holder and who has been charged £3,016 for an operation she had carried out in order to prevent total loss of sight; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23618/00]
Under arrangements for public hospital services introduced in June 1991, on foot of the Health (Amendment) Act, 1991, everyone, regardless of income, is entitled to public hospital and public consultant services subject only to modest statutory charges, from which medical card holders are exempt. Alternatively one can opt to be the private patient of both the consultant and the hospital. Private patients are liable for the appropriate accommodation charges and consultants' fees in addition to the statutory charges.
The requirement that patients make an explicit choice between public and private care was recommended by the Commission on Health Funding on the grounds of equity since, under the previous system, it was possible that some public patients of the hospital could receive preferential treatment over other public patients by virtue of either being private to the consultant or by obtaining a private bed.
However, I have asked the Eastern Regional Health Authority to examine the circumstances of the case to establish whether they can assist this person towards the payment of costs.
240 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will direct that the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 8 be urgently and immediately investigated and that he will be given every medical treatment necessary, without delay. [23619/00]
The responsibility for the provision of services at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children's Hospital, now rests with the Eastern Regional Health Authority. My Department has, therefore, asked the regional chief executive of the authority to urgently investigate this matter and to reply directly to the Deputy.
241 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the need for a paediatric unit at St. Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, County Dublin particularly in view of the absence of a paediatric accident and emergency service; the steps he will take to meet the need; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23668/00]
The provision of paediatric accident and emergency services at St. Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, is a matter in the first instance for the Eastern Regional Health Authority. I am informed that the level of accident and emergency consultant cover generally at St. Columcille's Hospital and across the south east Dublin region is under examination at present by a joint sub-committee of the south east Dublin departments of surgery and medicine.
I am further advised that the Eastern Regional Health Authority is considering a proposal to appoint consultant paediatricians to the region with a special interest in community paediatrics.
The current policy on paediatric accident and emergency services is for children presenting at the A&E department at St. Columcille's with major medical or surgical problems to be assessed, stabilised and immediately transferred to the appropriate children's hospital with a view to ensuring timely access to the appropriate level of care. The provision of an effective triage system in A&E will be facilitated further by the recent approval of a £5 million development programme for the hospital, announced by the Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Hanafin. The development will involve an extension to the existing accident and emergency department at St. Columcille's Hospital.
The Council for Children's Hospital Care was established in 1999. The role of the council is primarily to assist the three paediatric hospitals to work with each other and the ERHA to plan and develop acute paediatric services on a co-ordinated basis in the functional area of the authority. I am informed that the issue of paediatric services in Dublin south east is receiving priority attention and that the council has established a sub-committee to address this service.
