Written Answers Nos. 318-334
318. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of recruiting an extra 500 hospital consultants; and the average estimated cost for support staff required per consultant. [51137/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.
319. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of recruiting an additional 4,000 nursing staff. [51138/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.
320. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of abolishing prescription charges. [51139/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for the administration of the community drug schemes; therefore, the matter has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
321. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of increasing the general practitioner rural practice allowance to €25,000. [51140/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraRegulations were signed by the then Minister for Health on 5 May 2016 which provide for the introduction of the new Rural Practice Support Framework (RPSF), which includes improved qualifying criteria for rural support and an increase in the financial allowance from €16,216.07 to €20,000 per annum. Under the new Framework, if two practice units are providing general practitioner services in the same qualifying area, both practices may qualify for a modified allowance of €10,000. GPs holding a permanent GMS contract who received the Rural Practice Allowance of €16,216.07 immediately prior to the introduction of the new Regulations who do not meet the new qualifying criteria continue to receive the payment on a personal basis, provided they retain their contractual commitment to the remote rural area.
As at 27 November 2017, there are 249 practice units in receipt of rural supports under the RPSF. 175 practices receive the financial allowance of €20,000 and 18 practices receive the modified allowance of €10,000. The full year cost of increasing the existing allowance to €25,000 and the corresponding modified allowance to €12,500 for these practices would amount to approximately €920,000. It must be emphasised that this estimate does not take account of any future increase in the number of qualifying practices. In addition, any increase in the financial allowance under the new RPSF would only apply to those practices that qualify under the new criteria, therefore these calculations have excluded the 56 GPs who currently receive the old financial allowance of €16,216.07.
322. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of implementing the national maternity strategy. [51141/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra337. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the status of the national maternity strategy; and the additional extra funding that will be required for its implementation. [51156/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 322 and 337 together.
Implementation of Ireland's first National Maternity Strategy - Creating A Better Future Together 2016 - 2026 - will be led by the National Women & Infants Health Programme. To this end, the Programme has developed a detailed Implementation Plan which I was pleased to launch last month. The Plan is presented under the Strategy's four strategic priorities and details how each of the 77 actions will be implemented. It represents another essential building block to provide a consistently safe and high quality maternity service.
The Programme has estimated that full implementation of the Strategy will cost in the region of an additional €80 million revenue funding over the lifetime of the Strategy. Work to identify the precise capital funding requirement is ongoing. The Strategy will be implemented on a phased basis over the coming years and therefore the funding requirement will vary from year to year. In that context, the Implementation Plan will inform the annual Estimates process each year.
I can confirm that additional funding will be provided for the Strategy in 2018, the detail of which will be set out in the National Service Plan 2018.
323. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of providing an additional 2.2 million home help hours. [51142/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra324. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of providing an additional 5,000 home care packages. [51143/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra333. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of providing an additional 200 intensive home care packages for persons with dementia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51152/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 323, 324 and 333 together.
In budget 2018 a further €37 million has been made available for older people services, comprising €5m once-off funding in 2017 and €32 million next year, to further strengthen supports for older people, particularly to facilitate speedier discharge from acute hospitals over the winter period. A significant proportion of this additional funding will go towards home care services.
As the specific costings requested by the Deputy are service matters I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
325. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of completing the recruitment required for the full implementation of A Vision for Change. [51144/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraWithin the HSE, the Mental Health Division’s staff numbers (based on April 2017 data) totals 9,815 WTEs. In addition, there are a further 1000 indirect WTE staff providing services. There are also approximately 300 being recruited and more than 700 posts are approved and in development from Programme for Government funding.
The full cost of recruitment to staff community teams in Mental Health Services in the nine Community Health Organisations as set out in 'A Vision for Change' is set out in the table below:
|
Recruitment |
|
|
Current Staffing (excluding indirect staff but including staff recruitment and the Programme for Government) |
10,815 |
|
Proposed staffing levels envisaged by 'Vision for Change' |
12,778 |
|
Gap between current and Vision |
1,963 |
|
Estimated Cost based on average staff payment of €65,000 (including PRSI and related costs) |
€127,595,000 |
326. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated full-year cost of reducing the drug payment threshold to €100. [51145/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, the HSE has statutory responsibility for the administration of the community drug schemes; therefore, the matter has been referred to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
327. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the full-year cost of recruiting an additional 200 speech and language therapists. [51146/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.
328. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the full-year cost of recruiting an additional 200 occupational therapists. [51147/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.
329. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the full-year cost of recruiting an additional 200 physiotherapists. [51148/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.
330. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the full-year cost of recruiting an additional 50 dental surgeons. [51149/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.
331. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the estimated capital cost of providing an additional emergency ambulance fleet; and the full-year costs of additional personnel required for its staffing. [51150/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.
334. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health his Department’s estimated full-year cost of providing free general practitioner care to all the population. [51153/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe framework under which general practitioners are remunerated for the provision of services to holders of a medical card or GP visit card is comprised of a number of elements, principally an annual capitation payment per patient, additional fee-per-service payments and a range of practice supports. To estimate the cost of the provision of care free at the point of use to the full population would require a detailed modelling exercise.
The Deputy will be aware that the Report of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare which was published on 30 May 2017 recommended the phased introduction of universal GP care over the next five years. I have consistently supported the work of the cross-party Committee, and welcomed the level of consensus and stakeholder support that it has attracted. Work is underway within my Department to develop a detailed response to the Sláintecare Report.
