Written Answers Nos. 503-517
503. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Health if he will review the Health Service Executive prescription food list which is available for medical card and long-term illness card holders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6768/16]
View answerUnder the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for the administration of the primary care schemes, therefore the matter has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to you.
If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
504. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Health the status of the case of a person (details supplied) in County Offaly including when the person will receive an appointment [6775/16]
View answerUnder 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.
The scheduling of appointments for patients is a matter for the hospital to which the patient has been referred. Should a patient's general practitioner consider that the patient's condition warrants an earlier appointment, he or she should take the matter up with the consultant and the hospital involved. In relation to the specific case raised, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.
505. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Health the status of the case of a person (details supplied) in County Offaly, including when the person will receive an appointment [6776/16]
View answerUnder 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.
The scheduling of appointments for patients is a matter for the hospital to which the patient has been referred. Should a patient's general practitioner consider that the patient's condition warrants an earlier appointment, he or she should take the matter up with the consultant and the hospital involved. In relation to the specific case raised, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.
506. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the status of an appeal for assistance by a person (details supplied) in County Kildare under the nursing home support scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6777/16]
View answerAs this is a service matter it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
507. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health the status of a hospital appointment for a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6778/16]
View answerUnder 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.
The scheduling of appointments for patients is a matter for the hospital to which the patient has been referred. Should a patient's general practitioner consider that the patient's condition warrants an earlier appointment, he or she should take the matter up with the consultant and the hospital involved. In relation to the specific case raised, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.
508. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that the Health Service Executive application form for the cross-border healthcare directive to access tier 4 residential addiction services places an unfair burden of responsibility on the referring doctor to ensure compliance with public patient pathways, and that this responsibility is not placed on referring doctors in other participating European Union states; if he will consider removing this responsibility from doctors practising in this State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6779/16]
View answerThe EU Directive 2011/24/EU on Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Healthcare aims to ensure EU citizens may access safe and good quality healthcare across EU borders. The Directive establishes a framework for cross border healthcare between EU/EEA states to facilitate patients to access care in another Member State in accordance with their entitlements in their own country. It is important to note that the Directive does not create additional rights for persons with regard to access to healthcare.
The procedure to obtain healthcare, including Tier 4 residential addiction services, which applies to persons accessing that care in Ireland applies equally to patients seeking to access that healthcare under the Directive. The main purpose of the Directive is to facilitate access to safe and high-quality cross border healthcare and to ensure patients’ mobility, while respecting the competence of Member States for organising their own healthcare systems.
The procedures for accessing healthcare in Ireland are via GP referral or presentation by patients at an acute hospital emergency department. Furthermore the nationally adopted procedures for Tier 4 residential addiction services are in line with standard and accepted medical practice in Ireland. Therefore it cannot be the case that an unfair burden of responsibility on the patient’s referring doctor is created for those accessing services under the Directive by having the same pathway as is employed for those accessing such care in Ireland. This pathway is the long established and appropriate means of ensuring patients access the appropriate care, having had a GP first make the determination of necessary care and then provide the appropriate referral.
The Directive does not provide for or in any way encourage Member States to alter their healthcare systems to mirror those of other Member States.
509. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Health to introduce changes to the delivery of the cross-border healthcare directive to remove the burden of prior payment for treatment costs from the patient; whether this burden constitutes a barrier to access for some patients under the directive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6780/16]
View answerThe EU Directive 2011/24/EU on Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Healthcare aims to ensure EU citizens may access safe and good quality healthcare services across EU borders. Under the Directive, known as the Cross Border Healthcare Directive (CBD), insured patients are entitled to have costs of cross-border healthcare services reimbursed if the healthcare service in question is among the benefits to which they are entitled in their Member State of affiliation. The HSE endeavours to reimburse the cost of treatment incurred or the cost of providing such healthcare in the State, whichever is the lesser, to the applicant within 30 days of receipt of a claim for reimbursement, in line with Prompt Payment legislation.
Each Member State is free to set its own payment policy for cross-border healthcare services; by means of reimbursement to the patient or by direct payment to the healthcare provider. That policy decision is a matter for each Member State under the Directive and, similar to the majority of Member States, Ireland has no plan to introduce a policy of direct payment to healthcare service providers in all EU/EEA Member States for healthcare services provided in their Member State.
510. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health to arrange for the district nurse to call to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare with a view to facilitating home help; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6782/16]
View answerAs this is a service matter it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
511. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) in County Meath will receive an operation in Our Lady's Hospital Navan in County Meath. [6783/16]
View answerUnder 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.
The National Waiting List Management Policy, A standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, January 2014, has been developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.
512. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Minister for Health if surgery which is scheduled for 20 April 2016 will take place for a person (details supplied) in Dublin 18; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6784/16]
View answerI advised in my previous reply regarding this patient, on 3 February, that the HSE Treatment Abroad Scheme had approved the patient for treatment. I am now advised by the HSE that, due to changes made regarding the location at which the treatment is to be provided, further documentation is required from the patient's referring consultant and that this requirement has been advised to the patient and consultant.
The Health Service Executive has been asked to further examine this matter and to reply to the Deputy as soon as possible. If the Deputy has not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days, please contact my Private Office who will follow up the matter with them.
Under 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.
513. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health to establish a mechanism through which a complainant may appeal a decision reached by the Medical Council in respect of alleged malpractice as part of the complaints process concerning a medical doctor's fitness to practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6785/16]
View answerThe Medical Council is designated as the regulatory body for all registered medical practitioners under the Medical Practitioners Act 2007. It has a statutory role in protecting the public by promoting the highest professional standards among medical practitioners practising in the Republic of Ireland. The Medical Council is also where the public may make a complaint against a medical practitioner. Parts 7, 8 and 9 of the Act set out how complaints are managed by the Council.
When the Medical Council receives a complaint, a case officer is assigned to help the Preliminary Proceedings Committee (PPC) investigate the complaint. From the PPC the complaint may be referred to the Fitness to Practice (FTP) Committee, where a final determination on the doctor's fitness to practice is made by the Council based on the evidence provided to the FTP Inquiry and the FTP Committee's report.
I have no plans to establish a mechanism by which a complainant would have right of appeal of decision made by either the PPC or the FTP Committee as part of the complaints process.
514. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of incidents at certain hospitals whereby the trainee rates of pay for student nurses have not been increased pro rata in accordance with the increase in the minimum wage effective from 1 January 2016 as provided for in the National Minimum Wage Order 2015; the appropriate channel through which those affected may claim any amounts owning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6786/16]
View answerI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up on the matter with them.
515. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health the reason why the application form available for download on the long-term illness scheme section of the Health Service Executive website has yet to be amended to reflect the rewording of one of the qualifying conditions to the correct term of "intellectual disability"; when this change will occur; if he is aware that this amendment has yet to be formally completed despite several months of this Deputy having raised it through various means, including through Parliamentary Questions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6789/16]
View answerUnder the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for the administration of the primary care schemes, therefore the matter has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to you.
If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.
516. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health if and when a person (details supplied) in County Kildare will receive surgery and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6792/16]
View answerUnder 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.
The National Waiting List Management Policy, A standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, January 2014, has been developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.
517. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Health the reason for the delay in transferring a patient (details supplied) in County Donegal from Letterkenny University Hospital to Sligo University Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6796/16]
View answerUnder 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 HSE to respond to you directly. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and my officials will follow the matter up.
