David Cullinane
Question:1091. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of 50 additional speech and language therapist posts. [41761/21]
View answerWritten Answers Nos. 1091-1110
1091. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of 50 additional speech and language therapist posts. [41761/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1092. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of 50 additional practice nurse posts. [41762/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1093. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of 50 additional public health nurse posts. [41763/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1094. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of 50 additional public-only general practitioners. [41764/21]
View answerGeneral Practitioners are private practitioners, most of who hold contracts to provide medical services on behalf of the HSE to people with Medical Cards and GP Visit Cards and under various other schemes.
Under the General Medical Services (GMS) contract, GPs are reimbursed for a range of services they provide to medical card and GP visit card holders. GPs are remunerated for these services primarily on a capitation basis, with a range of additional support payments and fees for specific items of service.
The HSE does not directly hire GPs and there is no approved salary scale in the public service for a GP post. Equally, there is no appropriate measure of other costs required to ensure that a directly-employed GP could provide an adequate service (such as the cost of support staff, equipment costs, or other overheads). For this reason it is not possible to quantify the financial implications of directly hiring GPs to provide services to the public health system under the GMS and other schemes.
1096. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated current and capital cost of five new palliative care beds and staffing. [41767/21]
View answer1108. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost of a specialist palliative care bed. [41783/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1096 and 1108 together.
As the Deputy may be aware, to date specialist palliative care inpatient units have been constructed with funding raised by local voluntary organisations, while the HSE provides fit-out costs.
The units include space for the Palliative Community Homecare Team, Day Care, treatment rooms and pharmacy, family accommodation, kitchen and canteen, staff room, administration, education and meeting rooms and, where relevant, external groundworks/landscaping. It is not possible to provide an estimate of the cost specifically associated with each bed. However, as a guideline, it should be noted that the construction costs for a 15 bed unit average €10m, with fit-out costs in the region of €1.5m.
The revenue funding required to operate a 15 bed specialist palliative care inpatient unit is €3.8m per annum which equates to €253,000 per bed per year.
Finally, a 5 bed unit would not be considered as the staffing levels and related revenue costs would be prohibitive and maintaining a high level of clinical care would be very challenging. The locations for new inpatient units have been identified in line with national policy and the HSE's Pallative Care Development Framework 2017-2019, with units ranging from 15-36 beds.
1097. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of an additional psychologist for every CAMHS and primary care centre and number of posts. [41768/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1098. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of 276 additional psychologists. [41769/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1099. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to increase investment in approved mental health centre capital works, site maintenance and upgrade works budget to €30 million. [41770/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1100. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost to provide a consistent 7-day week outpatient child and adolescent mental health services model. [41771/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1101. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of establishing a National Advocacy Service for mental health services users. [41773/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1103. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost of an older persons services long-stay bed. [41778/21]
View answer1104. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost of an older persons services short-stay bed. [41779/21]
View answer1105. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost to replace all privately provided older persons services short-stay beds with public beds. [41780/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1103, 1104 and 1105 together.
Several factors determine the capital cost of a community bed. These include the nature of the bed (day case, long-term stay, etc.), and the bed’s location (within an existing facility, within a new extension to an existing facility, etc.). As such, there is no one capital cost for providing an additional bed.
A recent review of bed costings determined an average capital cost per bed to be in the region of:
Non Acute Bed - €0.35m to €0.45m
Acute Bed - €0.50m - €0.8m
Critical Care Bed - €1.40m to €1.80m
As some of these Parliamentary Questions relate to operational issues, they are a matter for the HSE. I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
Question No. 1104 answered with Question No. 1103.
Question No. 1105 answered with Question No. 1103.
1106. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost of a mental health approved centre bed. [41781/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1107. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost of a mental health community residence bed. [41782/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1109. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost of a social inclusion bed. [41784/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1110. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital and current cost to return rehabilitation bed and detox bed levels to pre-pandemic level peak. [41785/21]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.