Written Answers Nos. 784-798
784. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated weekly, monthly and annual cost of contracting a bed in a private nursing home for short-stay use by public hospitals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33904/23]
View answerAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
785. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of delivering the use of electronic patient records across the public healthcare system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33905/23]
View answerElectronic Patient Records (EPRs), Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Electronic health records (EHRs) terms are often used interchangeably and therefore all have very different cost drivers. Our national eHealth strategy 2013 and subsequent input to the committee on the reform of the health service cited budget EHR costs of approximately €875m pre-market engagement and Acute Hospitals only.
Since the eHealth strategy was published in 2013 and the Committee on the Future of Healthcare – Sláintecare Report 2017, we have learned a lot more about the approach taken by other countries and the factors that influence costs. For example, many countries have deployed single-site, single- instance EHRs to individual hospitals only or where countries have adopted an approach on integrating existing electronic health record systems to present a regional based electronic health record. Only a small number of countries are deploying EHRs on a national roll-out basis including Estonia (who leverage their long established national digital identity and infrastructure systems and adapted that to join up their health data) and more recently Northern Ireland (that are deploying a single, enterprise level EHR system across an entire region (all five health and social care trusts).
In terms of EHRs and their deployment across the public healthcare system, what our experience and research has confirmed there are a number of factors that need to be considered, when planning budgets, that contribute to the total cost of EHR implementation. These range from digital maturity, intending setting (e.g. national, regional, hospital or community wide or site specific based), Hardware Purchase Costs, Training of End-Users (as this is a significant transformation in moving from paper based processes to full digitisation), projected user numbers and needed licences, maintenance and optimisation required, and lastly, expertise to guide and manage these often complex technical and change deployments over and above internal staff costs assigned to the project. It should be noted that delivery of complete electronic patient records also requires other areas of investment besides the core EHR system/s, to cover related clinical, non-clinical systems and supporting infrastructure, cyber resilience etc.
Turning to actual cost information we have from recent procurements run more recently. The delivery of the EHR for Children’s hospital, for instance, has three component costs. The EHR main and support vendor costs are in the order of €50m, project team implementation costs on the order of €50m and c. €40m will be invested to build the supporting for ICT infrastructure. This could be used as a benchmark cost to deploy an EHR into a typical model 4 hospital of which there are 10 spread nationally. Applying a significantly lesser cost to the remaining model 3 and model 2 hospitals, would only add to these costs. Separately we would still need to account for the investment required for community EHR’s also as none of these costs include the cost of deployments in the community.
The intended approach for Ireland, as will be codified in Digital Health Strategic Framework and the Health Information Bill, will be that Ireland will deploy Summary Care Records, followed by Shared Care records in parallel to single instance/single site deployment of EHRs in Maternity, National Rehabilitation, National Forensic and some Acute Hospitals and in advance of an intended wider deployment to other Hospital/Community settings in the future. It will also account for the establishment of Regional Health Areas and the deployment of EHRs across same to support the delivery of integrated care. In conclusion and subject to an affordability assessment, scope of deployment, intended settings to be covered and lastly and most importantly, market response will ultimately determine implementation and life-cycle costs.
786. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of increasing capital spend on the National Ambulance Service by 10% above the 2022 and 2023 spend or allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33906/23]
View answerAs the Health Service Executive is responsible for the capital spend on the National Ambulance Service, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly in relation to this matter.
787. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of capping public hospital car parking charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33907/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
788. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of reducing car parking charges in public hospitals by 10% and 20%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33908/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
789. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of delivering a living wage to all staff in non-HSE organisations delivering care to public patients on behalf of the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33909/23]
View answerI have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy in respect of this matter.
790. Deputy Francis Noel Duffy asked the Minister for Health the cost to run the north inner city multidisciplinary team each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33916/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
791. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the number of people who are currently accessing cannabis-based products via the medical cannabis access programme; the conditions for which they are accessing these products; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33917/23]
View answer792. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health for an update on the number of people who are currently accessing cannabis-based treatments via the Ministerial-licensing access route; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33918/23]
View answer794. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health for an update on the review of the medical cannabis access programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33920/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 791, 792 and 794 together.
There are currently 47 patients availing of the MCAP being treated for one of the three stated conditions covered by the MCAP, namely
a. Spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis resistant to all standard therapies and interventions whilst under expert medical supervision;
b. Intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, despite the use of standard anti-emetic regimes whilst under expert medical supervision;
c. Severe, refractory (treatment-resistant) epilepsy that has failed to respond to standard anticonvulsant medications whilst under expert medical supervision.
To date 315 Ministerial Licences, issued pursuant to Section 14 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, have been issued to clinicians for the treatment of 75 different patients. Currently there are 36 patients being treated under the programme.
A clinical review of the MCAP will commence at the conclusion of the evidence gathering and evidence synthesis being carried out by the Health Research Board on behalf of the Department and peer review of the evidence synthesis. It is expected that the clinical review will commence in Q4 of 2023.
793. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health for an update on his Department's discussion around a Statutory Instrument to allow for the import of cannabis-based products from the UK for potential inclusion under the medical cannabis access programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33919/23]
View answerIn Statutory Instrument 262/2019 The Misuse of Drugs (Prescription and Control of Supply of Cannabis for Medical Use) Regulations 2019 the definition of “specified controlled drugs” as used in the programme specifies that is a product
(d) which is permitted to be sold or supplied for medical purposes by the relevant public or state body of a Member State other than the State,
(e) which is currently supplied to patients in the Member State referred to in sub-paragraph (d),
“Member State” means a state which is a contracting party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed in Oporto on 2 May 1992, as adjusted by the Protocol to that Agreement done at Brussels on 17 March 1993;
As the UK is no longer part of the EU, therefore it is not appropriate to include the UK in the definition of “member state” as this would provide the UK suppliers with access to the Irish market on the same basis as other EEA member states.
795. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of people availing of the temporary scheme of paid leave for public health service employees unfit for work post-Covid-19 infection; the ongoing cost of the scheme; the cost of the scheme to date; the total number of people who have availed of it; if he will put in place a permanent solution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33924/23]
View answerThe temporary Scheme of Paid Leave for Public Health Service Employees Unfit for Work Post-Covid-19 Infection was originally introduced on 1st July 2022 for a 12 month period only.
Officials from the Department of Health sought approval from the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in April 2023 for a 12-month extension of the Scheme however the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform sanctioned an extension to the Temporary Scheme until 31 October 2023 only. The Department of Public Expenditure sanctioned this four-month extension on a once-off basis and has said it applies only to those employees who are currently availing of the Scheme, and excludes any new applications.
This extension will allow the Department of Social Protection (DSP) time to consider the EU Committee recommendation regarding the recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational illness.
I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy in respect of numbers on the Scheme and costs.
796. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Health the reason the maximum rebate under the Cross-Border scheme for a cataract operation has been reduced from €1,872 to €1,700; if he can explain the basis for this considering that medical costs have been increasing across the public health sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33947/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
797. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Health if he will seek responses from each individual CHO HSE areas on the policies, administration and distribution relating to a question (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33948/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
798. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 272 of 25 May 2023, if he will explain why three arborist companies (details supplied) carried out assessments of trees outside Cork University Hospital; the reason these assessments incurred no financial cost to the HSE; if he will provide these assessment reports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33999/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
