Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
2400. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the extent to which the health services continue to deal with non-Covid-19 related health issues including hospital admissions, home care, outpatient appointments and admissions for necessary surgery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7376/21]
View answerWe are all acutely aware of the impact that COVID 19 has on society, our citizens and on individual service areas.
In the Health Sector, the COVID 19 pandemic has led to unprecedented interruption to normal healthcare activity in both acute and community settings.
To ensure that services were restored in a clinically prioritised manner, the HSE, in March 2021 published a Plan for restoring health and social care services in a COVID 19 environment entitled – ‘Safe Return to Health Services’ .
This Plan provides an operational framework for the safe return to services at a local level. It includes an overview of the services to be resumed, the target for their safe return and some detail on the conditions and challenges that have to be met. It is important to note that every phase outlined in the Plan has been informed by clinical guidance and putting patient safety first.
Prior to that, The National Service Plan 2021 sets out the type and volume of services that the HSE will provide for that year in respect of the funding allocated.
In submitting NSP 2021 for my approval, the HSE committed to keep the Plan under review to assess the impact of COVID 19 on the key transformation programmes and on the original targets and activity levels proposed for this year.
Progress had been made by the HSE with the review, however due to the recent Cyber-attack, the HSE has been requested to extend the review to include both the impact of COVID 19 and the Cyber-attack on the original NSP targets and to produce revised end of year positions which will ensure an effective performance management process for the remainder of 2021. It is expected that this will be completed in mid-July.
As this Parliamentary Question also relates to operational issues, it would be a matter for the HSE to comment on and provide an update to the Deputy, however, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.
