Written Answers Nos. 345-357
345. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked the Minister for Health if additional resources will be provided to the assessment of need office in north Dublin in view of the HSE acknowledgement that it receives the largest volume of applications in the country and that under these circumstances, assessments are taking longer than three months. [51595/17]
View answerThe Government is committed to providing services and supports for people with disabilities which will empower them to live independent lives, provide greater independence in accessing the services they choose, and enhance their ability to tailor the supports required to meet their needs and plan their lives. This commitment is outlined in the Programme for Partnership Government, which is guided by two principles: equality of opportunity and improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.
As the Deputy's question relates to service matters, I have arranged for the question to be referred to the Health Service Executive (HSE) for direct reply to the Deputy.
346. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the persons who will be on the new drugs committee; the qualifications that make them experts in assessing medicines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51600/17]
View answerAs the HSE has responsibility for this matter, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to you on this issue.
348. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 187 of 29 June 2017, the status of the review of a service (details supplied); the timeframe for the publication of this review; and the planned process for implementation of recommendations from the review. [51607/17]
View answerAs this is a service matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
349. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if he will address a matter regarding the provision of braces for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51614/17]
View answerAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply to the Deputy.
350. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 369 of 21 November 2017, the enforcement issues that have been identified with amendments to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015 as proposed on online advertising; if his views on same will be published; his plans to bring amendments on online advertising to the Bill; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51628/17]
View answerThe proposed amendments relating to online advertising sought to prohibit advertising of an alcohol product by means of an information society service unless all reasonable steps were taken to ensure that the advertising could not be viewed by children.
This amendment used the framework of the Audiovisual Media Service Directive, a Directive which is the remit of my colleague the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. This Directive is a sector specific Directive for television, and services that are like television. To extend its scope to include any audiovisual content on any platform would cut across several Directives, Regulations and many different enforcement regimes.
Furthermore, such amendments would only apply to websites hosted in Ireland. Consequently, advertisers would simply move to websites which are not hosted in Ireland but which have large Irish audiences in order to avoid the necessity to comply with the legislative requirements. In terms of enforcement, this would put them outside of the Irish jurisdiction.
It was also not clear to me how effective age verification controls could be enforced. A reliance on self-disclosure is not a robust method of enforcement as children may simply claim to be over 18 and therefore access the advertising. An effective enforceable approach would require the use of an independent age authentication system which may have conflicted with Data Protection considerations.
351. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the number of times the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service attended to a call in the Border counties; the days on which it attended these incidents; the counties in which the incidents took place, to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51630/17]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.
352. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 207 of 8 March 2017, the fully absorbed cost of 100 hospital beds over the course of a year, that is the number of nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and other staff that would be included within the fully absorbed cost; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51673/17]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to you directly.
353. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the HSE information technology budget for 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51674/17]
View answer354. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the cost of increasing the HSE information technology budget by 2% immediately; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51675/17]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 353 and 354 together.
The HSE ICT Capital allocation for 2018 is €60m, which represents an increase of €5m on the allocation of €55m in 2017. Increasing the 2018 capital allocation of €60m by 2% would amount to an additional €1.2m.
355. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the amount that has been spent on the roll-out of electronic health records to date; the spend by year to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51676/17]
View answer356. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the way in which the pre-committed spend for the roll-out of electronic health records in future years, by year, until completely rolled out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51677/17]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 355 and 356 together.
I presume by pre committed spend for the roll out of electronic health records in future years, that the Deputy is referring to the HSE’s plans for the phasing in of a national Electronic Health Record (EHR). The scale of the task to implement a national electronic health record programme is very large, challenging and requires a complex planning, approval and tendering process. In the business case, a 5 year and a 9 year technology investment programme is outlined but there is flexibility within its scope to stretch out timescales further. The total of all estimated costs including business change elements for a 5 year implementation are in the range of €647m to €875m respectively and the 9 year figure is between €609m to €824m.
The Electronic Health Record (EHR), as defined in the high level strategic business case, is a multi-annual programme of work and has 4 main elements - the Shared Care Record, the Community & Primary Care EHR, the Acute Operational EHR and the EHR integration suite. An acute EHR component is critical to the functioning of the New Children’s Hospital (NCH) and will be the first digital hospital in Ireland. Any capacity to fund future year requests is dependent on approval of the national EHR business case on the basis of a phased implementation consistent with the needs of the NCH. For a programme of this scale and scope, realistic timescales and funding options are important to ensure that the adoption of both the technology and the business change required by front line staff can be absorbed and managed in a coherent way. In addition to resourcing the EHR project with substantial manpower and financial resources, experience from other countries demonstrates that the vendor markets supplying many of these services needs to be carefully managed in terms of capacity and capability to deliver working tailored solutions in a satisfactory manner.
As regards progress to date, the HSE has appointed a programme manager to oversee the implementation of the Electronic Health Record in May 2017 and work is continuing with the HSE and my Department on progressing the business case with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The next phase of the EHR programme is to develop detailed business cases for each component, specification of requirements, procurement documentation and support during the procurement process. The HSE sought and received conditional sanction from my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to undertake four tenders, utilising the Office of Government procurement framework, to provide them with external support for the programme. The 4 tenders are for the delivery of support for the following four areas: programme office; acute EHR; community EHR; and Shared Care Record and Integration.
The tender documents were published in August and the tender process closed mid-September. To date, one contract for this work has been awarded for the acute hospital EHR in view of the requirements for the National Children's Hospital. In the case of the other two lots, a re-tendering exercise is underway. The outputs from this work will allow greater clarity on the scope of the individual components for what is being procured and the detailed costings for each of the areas that will make up the electronic health care record. Only when this detailed work is completed can the procurement process be considered for submission to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and prioritisation assigned to the work. The work in relation to EHR will continue and feed into the implementation response to the Sláintecare report being prepared by my Department.
The EHR programme encompasses ICT infrastructure as well as a wide ranging series of digitisation projects such as MN-CMS, MedLIS and the core Patient Administration System. Regarding the expenditure on the EHR programme broken down by year to date, I have asked the Health Service Executive to provide the detailed information sought by the Deputy and I will forward this information to her as soon as it is available.
357. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the cost of purchasing one air ambulance helicopter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51678/17]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.
