Thursday, 9 Sep 2021

Written Answers Nos. 1291-1310

Hospital Waiting Lists

Questions (1291)

Michael Healy-Rae

Question:

1291. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if an appointment will be expedited for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42381/21]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Health

As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Question No. 1292 answered with Question No. 1043.

Covid-19 Pandemic

Questions (1293)

Ruairí Ó Murchú

Question:

1293. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Health if he will outline the Departments involved in the development of the EU Digital Covid Certificate portal; the status of the development process detailing any unexpected delays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42392/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

Implementation of the EU Digital Covid Certificate cuts across several Government departments and agencies, many of whom are involved in related COVID-19 projects, policy and legislative developments which connect with the implementation of the Certificate, for example, the HSE who provide the underlying data, OGCIO who generate and distribute certificates based on this data and the Department of Health who has overseen the establishment and operation of the call-center.

To date over 3.6 million vaccination certificates have been issued by email and post. As additional people become eligible for vaccination certificates, certificates are automatically issued after the second vaccination. The Office of Government Chief Information Office (OGCIO) issues certificates based on underlying data provided by the HSE and private test providers. Of course there are a small percentage of the overall number who have yet to receive their vaccination certificates (less than 0.9 % of all those vaccinated to-date) related to data quality issues. The HSE has multiple data sources for vaccine data (e.g., vaccine portal, GPs, pharmacies, acute settings) and data quality is varied. Extensive data quality work has been undertaken by the HSE to ensure sufficient and fully accurate information is available to support both generation and issuing of the certificate to an individual. The HSE continues to work to resolve outstanding data quality issues in relation to vaccination in the coming weeks.

As decided by Government, the Department of Health has mobilised a DCC contact centre at exceptional pace to manage the required workflows and communications to support citizens who may have queries in relation to Digital COVID Certificates for the purposes of travel. This has required an incredible effort across multiple government agencies to put in place the people, processes and technology required. An interim emergency line was put in place from 13th July in advance of the initial contact service going live on the 19th July given the level of public interest as soon as the first certificates began to issue through OGCIO.

Due to unprecedented demand on the call centre over and above estimates of call centre demand based on an assessment of travel bookings and survey or insights data on travel intentions that Government or industry had access to, several enhancements were accelerated and put in place. The centre ramped up the number of call-handling agents over its initial weeks and stands at 86 agents since the 23rd August. Increased call handling technical capacity was also put in place through a second freephone number on 20th July.

The call centre also introduced new additional service channels through the launch of online portals to provide additional channels to service queries from members of the public. A new online form to request Recovery certificates for eligible persons was released on 22 July. Following this a portal allowing for Vaccine Certificate Request, Vaccine Certificate Details Update and a Vaccine Status portal were launched on the 30th July.

The Call Centre continues to work to improve the service and it is expected that a portal to allow citizens with incomplete citizen or vaccine information to provide this data will be launched very shortly to support the HSE gather outstanding data from members of the public who have yet to receive their certificates due to data quality issues. Once a person’s identity and eligibility have been verified through this portal, a certificate can issue. Development work is also underway introduce webchat and a last portal to cater for certificate applicants for a DCC who are not resident within Ireland but may be resident on the island of Ireland and third countries.

Departmental Data

Questions (1294, 1295, 1296, 1297, 1298, 1299)

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1294. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for east central Cork by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42396/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1295. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for central Cork by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42397/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1296. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for north-east Cork by age, intervention type SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42398/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1297. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for south Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42399/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1298. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team in west Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42400/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1299. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for north-west Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42401/21]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Health

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1294, 1295, 1296, 1297, 1298 and 1299 together.

As these are service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Question No. 1295 answered with Question No. 1294.

Question No. 1296 answered with Question No. 1294.

Question No. 1297 answered with Question No. 1294.

Question No. 1298 answered with Question No. 1294.

Question No. 1299 answered with Question No. 1294.

Departmental Data

Questions (1300, 1301, 1302, 1303, 1304, 1305)

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1300. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for central Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42402/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1301. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team in north Cork city and Blarney by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42403/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1302. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for west central Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42404/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1303. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for south-east Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42405/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1304. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for Carrigaline, Kinsale, Bandon, Cork by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42406/21]

Seán Sherlock

Question:

1305. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of children under the age of 18 years awaiting a first-time appointment since being switched to the new children’s disability network team for east Cork city by age, intervention type, SLT, occupational therapy and physiotherapy in tabular form. [42407/21]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Health

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1300, 1301, 1302, 1303, 1304 and 1305 together.

As these are service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Question No. 1301 answered with Question No. 1300.

Question No. 1302 answered with Question No. 1300.

Question No. 1303 answered with Question No. 1300.

Question No. 1304 answered with Question No. 1300.

Question No. 1305 answered with Question No. 1300.

Question No. 1306 answered with Question No. 1036.

Question No. 1307 answered with Question No. 1180.

Departmental Data

Questions (1308)

Gerald Nash

Question:

1308. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Health the number of dentists with medical card contracts in counties Louth and Meath in each of the years 2016 to 2021, respectively, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42412/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Departmental Data

Questions (1309)

Gerald Nash

Question:

1309. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Health the number of patients currently waiting for a dental consultation and dental surgery in counties Louth and Meath in tabular form; the percentage of patients who have been on each respective waiting list for over 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42413/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Question No. 1310 answered with Question No. 955.