Thursday, 9 Sep 2021

Written Answers Nos. 991-1010

Departmental Correspondence

Questions (991)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

991. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if he has received correspondence from general practitioners expressing concerns over a perceived increase or decrease in cancer diagnosis, late cancer diagnosis or missed cancer diagnosis as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic since he took office; if so, the dates upon which he received such correspondence; the persons he received the correspondence from; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41494/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

The Department of Health is not aware of correspondence from General Practitioners specifically relating to any perceived increase or decrease in cancer diagnoses, late cancer diagnoses or missed cancer diagnoses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Action Plan on Covid-19 identified the continued provision of cancer care as a priority. Cancer services continue to operate in line with guidance issued by the HSE's National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP).The NCCP is continuing to closely monitor trends in numbers coming forward to diagnostic services, and the level of attendances for appointments for treatment. The total number of patients seen across all Rapid Access Clinics (RACs) in 2020 (44,233) amounted to 88% of the 2019 figure (50,249). The total number of new cancers diagnosed in RACs to end-2020 stood at 94% of the 2019 figure.

The number GP e-referrals to RACs for January - July 2021 (27,714) stands at 117% of the activity for the corresponding weeks in 2019 (23,757).An important message to everyone now is that, if you have any concerns about cancer, please go to your GP who will arrange appropriate follow-up care. Our cancer diagnostic and treatment services are open, and our healthcare staff will provide any necessary care.Funding of €12m has been allocated this year for the restoration of cancer services to 95% of 2019 (pre-Covid) levels. This funding is being used to support hospitals in addressing backlogs, extending clinic times, providing additional clinics, increasing diagnostic capacity and providing locum/temporary support. It is also supporting virtual clinics and more accurate triage, and facilitating infrastructure and minor equipment purchases to increase capacity across RACs and surgical oncology, medical oncology and radiation oncology services. In addition, as part of Budget 2021, an extra €20m has been allocated for the continued implementation of the National Cancer Strategy this year. This funding is being used to facilitate developments across cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and patient supports.

Tribunals of Inquiry

Questions (992)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

992. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the number of claims notified to the CervicalCheck Tribunal since its establishment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41497/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

The CervicalCheck Tribunal was established on 27 October 2020 under the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019. Establishment of the Tribunal was finalised with the appointment of the nominated members to the Tribunal with effect from 1 December 2020.

The Tribunal has indicated to my Department that it has received eight claims and that these claims were made to the Tribunal by ten people. The claims received are a combination of new claims i.e. claims that were not the subject of proceedings before the High Court, and claims transferred from the High Court. I am advised that there has been further interest expressed in using the Tribunal, and it is anticipated that additional claims will be received.

The Tribunal is the most appropriate venue to hear and determine CervicalCheck claims. It has been specifically designed for that purpose. It is, of course, entirely up to eligible women as to whether or not they use it.

Health Service Executive

Questions (993)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

993. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the number of claims notified or proceedings issued against CervicalCheck in each of the past five years, and to date in 2021, regarding the alleged misreading of smear tests; the details of these cases; the number of claims that came from women affected by the scandal; and the number that were from the families surviving women who died allegedly as a result of the misreading of smear tests. [41498/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims, including claims in respect of clinical negligence, on behalf of Delegated State Authorities (DSA’s) including the Health Service Executive.

I have been informed by the SCA that the information contained within the attached document was extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as per the criteria below.

Criteria used

- Question 1 (Table 1) shows Claims received between 01/01/2016 to 01/08/2021.

- Question 2 (Table 2)shows Date Proceedings Issued between 01/01/2016 to 01/08/2021.

- Question 4:

- Claims received between 01/01/2016 to 01/08/2021.

- Incident Hazard Category equals ‘Clinical Care’.

- Question 5

- Claims received between 01/01/2016 to 01/08/2021.

- Incident Hazard Category equals ’Exposure to Psychological hazards’

- Sub Hazard type equals ‘Wrongful Death’

- Report is correct as at 01/08/2021

cervicalcheck

Health Services

Questions (994)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

994. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to an increase in the number of cancer patients travelling to Northern Ireland for treatment; and if he will provide this Deputy with any statistics he has on the issue. [41510/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

I have not been made aware of any general increase in the number of patients travelling to Northern Ireland for cancer treatment.

We have strong collaboration North/South in relation to oncology matters. In particular, we have worked very closely together in relation to the provision of radiotherapy services for Irish patients in the North West Cancer Centre, Altnagelvin Area Hospital, Derry.

In 2020, a total of 200 Irish patients received radiation oncology treatment in Altnagelvin. This year, 144 Irish patients received treatment there to the end of July, compared to 117 for the same period in 2020. Over 700 Irish patients have benefitted from treatment in the North West Cancer Centre since it opened in November 2016.

Covid-19 Pandemic

Questions (995)

Paul Murphy

Question:

995. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the difficulty faced by Irish citizens who are abroad in obtaining a Covid-19 recovery certificate when they have tested positive while away; and if a plan is in place to ensure these persons can fly home with this certificate as proof of their recovery. [41511/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

Travellers to Ireland are required to present proof of vaccination, proof of recovery or a relevant test result as evidence of their health status. A relevant test result is a negative RT-PCR test result based on a sample taken within 72 hours of arrival to Ireland or a positive RT-PCR COVID-19 test result taken at between 11 days and 180 days prior to arrival. Depending on the individual's travel history, they may be required to quarantine on arrival. Full details of measures applying when travelling to Ireland are published at www.gov.ie/en/publication/77952-government-advice-on-international-travel/.

Covid-19 Pandemic

Questions (996, 1019, 1020, 1024, 1049, 1401)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

996. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health when EU digital Covid-19 certificates will issue in the case of persons (details supplied) whose certificates are required for travel to Malta; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41512/21]

Paul Kehoe

Question:

1019. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Health when the Covid-19 vaccine certificate will issue to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41561/21]

Paul Kehoe

Question:

1020. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Health when the Covid-19 vaccine certificates will issue to persons (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41562/21]

Paul Kehoe

Question:

1024. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Health if assistance will be offered to persons (details supplied) on the issuing of the EU digital Covid-19 certificate in time for travel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41581/21]

Paul Kehoe

Question:

1049. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Health if assistance can be offered to a person (details supplied) to issue the EU digital Covid-19 certificate in time for travel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41659/21]

Cian O'Callaghan

Question:

1401. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Health the status of three Covid-19 digital certificates (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42821/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

I propose to take Questions Nos. 996, 1019, 1020, 1024, 1049 and 1401 together.

Over 3.3m Digital COVID Certificates have been issued via post and email from July 12th and remaining certificates are being processed for issue.

There are a small percentage of the overall number of applicants who have yet to receive their Digital COVID Certificate for vaccination. This unfortunately delay relates to a number of factors, including cases quality of data is insufficient or where GPs are uploading the remaining data to the system. Less than 0.9 % of all those vaccinated to-date are experiencing delays for these reasons.

To support the roll-out of Government policy, a helpline through the DCC Call-Center was set up to allow those members of the public who are travelling to deal directly with queries relating to the Digital COVID Certificate from Monday 19th of July 2021. The call centre has also since introduced new additional service channels. 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. All persons who have yet to receive a Digital COVID Certificate following a full course of vaccination are encouraged to make use of these points of contact to complete or correct their dataset in the system.

Emergency Departments

Questions (997)

Francis Noel Duffy

Question:

997. Deputy Francis Noel Duffy asked the Minister for Health if there is a national protocol and guidelines for providing food to patients in accident and emergency departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41518/21]

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.

Emergency Departments

Questions (998)

Francis Noel Duffy

Question:

998. Deputy Francis Noel Duffy asked the Minister for Health the guidelines on the frequency with which a patient is updated on their care while being in an accident and emergency department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41519/21]

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.

Emergency Departments

Questions (999)

Francis Noel Duffy

Question:

999. Deputy Francis Noel Duffy asked the Minister for Health if will consider that in cases in which a patient is told after triage that there is a 12-hour wait, the patient can be allowed to go home to rest and return to the hospital and not be put to the end of the queue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41520/21]

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.

Covid-19 Pandemic

Questions (1000)

James Lawless

Question:

1000. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Health if there are plans to set up an email address for queries about the EU digital Covid-19 certificate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41523/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

Government’s primary focus was to fulfil our EU Obligations in a robust and effective way, including operability by 1 July in context of EU compliance; and delivery of certificates to eligible members of the public in line with Government’s lifting of restrictions on non-essential travel since Monday, 19 July.

To support the roll-out of Government policy, a helpline through the DCC Call-Centre was set up to allow those members of the public who are travelling to deal directly with queries relating to the Digital COVID Certificate from Monday 19th of July 2021. The call centre has also since introduced new additional service channels. 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.

Question No. 1002 answered with Question No. 970.

Question No. 1001 answered with Question No. 970.

Health Services Staff

Questions (1003)

Pa Daly

Question:

1003. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Health the date by which a special needs psychiatrist already committed to by the HSE will take up a permanent position in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41528/21]

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.

Health Services Staff

Questions (1004)

Pa Daly

Question:

1004. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the special needs psychiatrist previously handling patients in counties Cork and Kerry, has ceased seeing patients based in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41529/21]

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.

Covid-19 Pandemic

Questions (1005)

David Cullinane

Question:

1005. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health if he will advise on a matter raised in correspondence by a person (details supplied) about the EU digital Covid-19 certificate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41539/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

Just like the paper version of the Digital COVID Certificate (DCC), the digital version of the DCC contains personal information such as name, date of birth and details about the vaccination received by the individual. Data is held in an encoded but unencrypted form. It is an open EU wide standard and there are numerous tools and applications freely available which enable decoding of this information. Hence any device which scans these codes has the ability to display the information. It is an open inter-operable standard, so that it can be used for checks at border crossings and as such, this risk cannot be totally eliminated.

Existing safeguards in the current DCC Checker App:

1. Only limited information is displayed.

2. After 2 minutes the information of the last scanned DCC code is automatically removed from the html of the web page and any “printing/saving” of the page will not save any information.

3. The verifier cannot use the browser back button to view earlier scanned codes.

4. The simple, streamlined design page makes it easy for an alert user to catch someone with open browser consoles trying to capture underlying information like DOB.1

Additional improvements in the upcoming versions of DCC Checker App: At present, after decoding - all the information is available as a JSON response but the new version will mask the DoB and UVCI fields.

In relation to the question regarding who is responsible for the protection of the certificate information, whether restaurants or bars ask for people to provide mobile numbers to facilitate contact tracing or whether they ask people to provide evidence of vaccination, they still have a duty of care under GDPR to treat that personal information correctly and in compliance with data protection regulations.

Medical Aids and Appliances

Questions (1006)

David Cullinane

Question:

1006. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to extend the flash glucose FreeStyle Libre device to persons over 21 years of age. [41540/21]

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.

Disease Management

Questions (1007)

David Cullinane

Question:

1007. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to establish a diabetes register. [41541/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

In September 2019 Sláintecare Integration funding was allocated to the HSE to design and procure a National Diabetes Registry demonstrator product and develop a full specification plan for a National Diabetes Registry. The project was paused as it was dependent on the input and expertise of key HSE staff who were redeployed onto urgent on-going COVID-19 work. This project remains a priority and, subject to COVID-19, will be revisited in the future. Pending the development of the full specification plan, it is not possible to calculate the full cost of establishing the National Diabetes Registry at this point.

Disease Management

Questions (1008)

David Cullinane

Question:

1008. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to establish a stroke register. [41542/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

In 2012, the National Stroke Register (NSR), was first developed. In 2019, it came under the auspices of the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) and evolved into the Irish National Audit of Stroke (INAS). The first INAS report (2019) Stroke which presents data and findings to the end of 2019 was published on 16th December 2020 by NOCA. It continues on from the NSR yearly reports, and access to data analysts and researchers provided through NOCA has allowed the Audit team to produce a more detailed evaluation of stroke care in Ireland than has been possible before.

Funding for the Audit is provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE) through the Office of the Chief Clinical Officer.

This Parliamentary Question relates to cost/funding issues which are an operational matter for the HSE. 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

Disease Management

Questions (1009)

David Cullinane

Question:

1009. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to establish a heart valve disease register. [41543/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

The management of heart valve disease is a specialists cardiac service.

The National Review of Specialist Cardiac Services is a key enabler for future policy and its recommendations will inform the future provision of services. The National Review of Specialist Cardiac Services commenced in January 2018 with Professor Phillip Nolan as Chair of the Steering Group. This Review aims to achieve optimal patient outcomes at population level with particular emphasis on the safety, quality and sustainability of the services that patients receive by establishing the need for an optimal configuration of a national adult cardiac service. This aligns with the Sláintecare reform programme. While substantial progress has been made on the Review, the COVID-19 Pandemic has impacted on the progress of the review, as the Chair has played a key role in the national COVID-19 response, both as a member of the NPHET and Chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group. Work is now underway to finalise the Review to completion over the coming months.

As part of the response to this Parliamentary Question relates to a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Disease Management

Questions (1010)

David Cullinane

Question:

1010. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to extend the type 2 diabetes cycle of care to all people with type 2 diabetes. [41544/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

In October 2015, the Diabetes cycle of care programme was introduced nationally by the HSE. Under this programme, adult GMS patients, those who hold a medical card or GP visit card, with a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes are eligible to be managed as part of the programme by their GP.

The 2019 GP Agreement introduced the chronic disease management (CDM) programme for GMS patients who have one or more specific chronic diseases, of which Type 2 Diabetes is one. The structured programme, commenced in 2020, is being rolled out to all adult GMS patients over four years (2020 to 2023), and will replace the Diabetes cycle of care programme as it is rolled out.

People who cannot, without undue hardship, arrange for the provision of medical services for themselves and their dependants may be entitled to a medical card. In the assessment process, the HSE can take into account medical costs incurred by an individual or a family. People who are not eligible for a medical card may still be able to avail of a GP visit card.

While Type 2 diabetic patients who do not hold a medical card or GP visit card are not eligible under the Diabetes cycle of care or the CDM programme, diabetes is one of the conditions covered by the Long Term Illness Scheme. Under this scheme, patients with diabetes can receive drugs, medicines, and medical and surgical appliances directly related to the treatment of their illness free of charge, regardless of whether they hold a medical card.

It is not possible to calculate the cost of extending the CDM programme, the successor to the diabetes cycle of care programme, to all with type 2 diabetes as the fees payable to GPs could only be determined following agreement with the IMO on the scope and content of the extended service, as well as the cost of the additional supports necessary to provide for that service. It is not possible to provide an accurate estimate based on the fees payable to GPs under the CDM programme due to issues such as the lack of current prevalence data, the number of undiagnosed patients and patient uptake, and comorbidity.