Written Answers Nos. 613-622
613. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Health for an update on the increased bed capacity for the National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders; the funding allocated for eating disorder beds in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17609/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
614. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Health the number of WTE consultant respiratory medicine and respiratory medicine registrars based at Beaumont Hospital in 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17622/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
615. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Health the number of public patients aged 40 years and younger diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2022 and 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17623/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible
616. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Health the number of consultant paediatric ENT surgeons working in the public health service; his plans to expand this number; the international recommended best practice ratio for paediatric ENT surgeons to population and current ratio; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17624/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible
617. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Health the number of WTE consultant plastic surgeons based at St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, in the years of 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17625/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
618. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the provision of a hospice for the midlands region; to outline the level of funding available; and the approximate timeline for provision of the facility. [17633/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible
619. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Health the status of the development of the promised new cancer care centre in Galway University Hospital; the timeline for the construction of the new centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17637/24]
View answerGalway University Hospitals (GUH) is proposing a number of projects of significant scale on its University Hospital Galway (UHG) campus, including a new regional cancer centre. In order to ensure that capital investment works do not adversely impact the delivery of healthcare on the congested campus, a programmatic approach for the delivery of these projects will be required.
To address this need, a Capital Programme Oversight Board was established by Saolta in September 2023. This Board has been tasked with developing a master plan from which all individual proposals on the UHG campus will flow, including the development of a regional cancer centre.
In line with the requirements of the new Infrastructure Guidelines, which replaced the Public Spending Code, a Strategic Assessment Report (SAR)/ Preliminary Business Case (PBC) for the cancer centre must be developed. The first step in this process, the completion of the SAR, has been completed and the Department has provided its feedback to the HSE and the project team to inform the development of the SAR/PBC.
The submission of the SAR/PBC is dependent on the completion of the master planning for the UHG campus by Saolta’s Capital Programme Oversight Board and the sequencing of projects and works to unlock the necessary capacity on the campus. Any SAR/PBC submitted must be subject to a Departmental review and independent external validation, including an external assurance process and presentation to D/PENDPDR’s Major Project Advisory Group. Satisfactory completion of this review process will enable Government consent to be sought to proceed to the next stage of the project development process- development of the pre-tender business case and completion of the all the statuary planning processes.
The timeframe for the delivery of cancer centre will be determined by the consideration of the proposal within the integrated masterplan under development and the outcome of the findings from each review stage, to ensure that the proposal remains feasible, delivery and represents value for money.
In 2023, construction on a new €70m radiation oncology centre in University Hospital Galway was completed and the Minister for Health officially opened the facility in October 2023. The newly built radiotherapy unit will lead to an increase in capacity for radiotherapy treatments. The new technology available in the centre also significantly increases the ability to accurately target and treat tumours. This will ensure equal access to cutting edge therapies for patients throughout Ireland.
620. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that Ireland currently screens newborn babies for fewer diseases than 75% of EU member states; if he is aware that only one new test has been delivered in the intervening years since the establishment of the Newborn Screening Advisory Committee in 2019; if he will agree to a comprehensive newborn screening programme that is adequately resourced and ensures that babies born in Ireland are screened for the EU average of 18 conditions at a minimum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17638/24]
View answer628. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Health if he will introduce a new comprehensive newborn screening programme that is adequately resourced and ensures that babies born in Ireland are screened for the European average of 18 conditions at a minimum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17692/24]
View answer669. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that, currently, Ireland screens newborn babies for fewer diseases than 75% of EU countries; if he is also aware that since the establishment of the Newborn Screening Advisory Committee in 2019, only one new test has been delivered in the intervening years; if he will agree to a comprehensive newborn screening programme that is adequately resourced and ensures that babies born here are screened for the EU average of 18 conditions at a minimum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17952/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 620, 628 and 669 together.
Currently, all newborn babies (between 3 and 5 days old) are offered newborn bloodspot screening (generally known as the ‘heel prick’) for rare but serious conditions that are treatable if detected early in life.
The expansion of the National Newborn Bloodspot Screening (NBS) Programme continues to remain a key objective of mine as Minister for Health, and I am pleased to note that the National Screening Advisory Committee (NSAC) has been actively progressing work in this regard.
NSAC is an independent expert group that considers and assesses evidence in a robust and transparent manner, and against internationally accepted criteria. It is important that we have rigorous processes in place to ensure our screening programmes are effective, quality assured, validated and operating to safe standards, and that the benefits of screening outweigh the harms.
Significant progress continues to be made on the expansion of the NBS Programme under this Government. As the Deputy will be aware, in November 2023, I endorsed the recommendation from NSAC on the addition and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) to the NBS programme. This will bring the number of conditions screened for in Ireland to 11, once the implemented, representing a 37% increase over the lifetime of this Government.
In February of this year, I was pleased to allocate €1.4m of new development funding in 2024 to support the expansion of the NBS programme. This funding will allow for the rollout of testing for both SCID and SMA and represents a significant funding increase in a single year. The announcement further demonstrates my ongoing commitment to reducing the impact of these rare but serious diseases in children and infants. This investment will be crucial to providing additional funds for new equipment, staff recruitment, validation, quality assurance and training to facilitate addition of new conditions to NBS programme.
I can confirm that work commenced at the start of this year, with ongoing collaboration between officials in my Department and the HSE National Children’s Screening Programme on implementing an ambitious timeline for the introduction of screening for SMA and SCID.
In terms of further expansion of our newborn screening programmes, Ireland has always evaluated the case for commencing a national screening programme against international accepted criteria – collectively known as the Wilson Jungner criteria. The evidence bar for commencing a screening programme should and must remain high. This ensures that we can be confident that the programme is effective, quality assured and operating to safe standards. There is no doubt that newborn screening programmes have the potential to be rapidly transformed by new technologies and new therapies but this highlights the need to continue with a robust, methodologically sound and detailed analysis of the evidence in each and every case against internationally accepted screening criteria.
The expansion of newborn bloodspot screening is being continually reviewed across Europe where the number of conditions screened for varies significantly. For example, the UK currently screens for a similar number of conditions as Ireland. However, as noted by HIQA in their 2021 ‘Review of processes in use to inform the expansion of newborn bloodspot Screening programmes’, international comparisons of the range of conditions screened is likely to reflect complex decision-making processes and local inputs. These may include differing opinions with respect to assessment of conditions against criteria, differences in practice with respect to organisational structure and laboratory implementation, differing levels of tolerance for false positives and false negatives and differing local epidemiology with respect to condition prevalence and the genetic composition of the local population.
Nevertheless, I am acutely aware of how difficult it is for parents, families and children who have received a diagnosis of a rare disease, and how challenging daily life can be for them. This is why I remain committed to the further expansion of screening in Ireland in accordance with internationally accepted criteria and best practice.
621. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health the number of children on waiting lists for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychology and the waiting times under primary care in counties Roscommon and Galway. [17654/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
622. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health to provide a list of services and supports currently available in a service (details supplied) for young people and for older people under psychiatry of later life; the operating days and times of these services; and the number of people being supported to date in all services.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17655/24]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
