Written Answers Nos. 1007-1025
1007. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent occupational therapists per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent occupational therapists per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16789/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1008. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent speech and language therapists per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent speech and language therapists per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16790/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1009. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent psychotherapists per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent psychotherapists per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16791/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1010. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent psychologists per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent psychologists per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16792/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1011. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent paediatricians per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent paediatricians per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16793/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1012. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent dietitians per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent dietitians per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16794/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1013. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the ratio of whole-time equivalent social workers per 100 persons that is recommended by the HSE; the number of whole-time equivalent social workers per 100 persons currently employed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16795/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1014. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the average waiting time in each CHO for a child to receive an assessment of need in 2018, 2019 and 2020, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16796/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly.
1015. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Health the average waiting time in each CHO for a child who has received an assessment of need to access the therapies and services identified in the assessment of need in 2018, 2019 and 2020, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16797/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly.
1016. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Health the position regarding Covid-19 vaccination at home for persons who are housebound; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16798/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1017. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Health the number of housebound persons who have been vaccinated at home since 1 March 2021 on a weekly basis; the geographical locations of same in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16802/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1018. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health the status of pay restoration for section 39 workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16812/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraFor Section 39 agencies, an agreement was reached by parties at the Workplace Relations Commission in October 2018, in relation to a process of pay restoration, for staff employed by 50 pilot agencies. Pay restoration commenced in April 2019. Any outstanding balance would be paid in two equal amounts in 2020 and 2021, if due.
The agreement reached at the WRC noted that some of the organisations (approximately 250) which did not form part of the pilot phase are also likely to have pay restoration issues. It stated that a process of engagement to address this would commence in 2019. It is the organisations who were identified in that initial agreement reached at the WRC in 2018 that are included in this final phase of pay restoration.
The HSE have been costing this next phase of pay restoration and asked those eligible 250 organisations, who were included as part of the WRC agreement, to submit an application which will be subject to assessment and verification by the HSE.
Following engagement at the Workplace Relations Commission in early December, the parties reached an agreement in relation to the 250 organisations. A payment arrangement consisting of three phases was agreed with the first two payments to be made in 2021.
1019. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health if he will address the case of a person (details supplied) concerning a recruitment matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16836/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1020. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health when Covid-19 walk-in PCR testing and rapid antigen testing will be rolled out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16838/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra1021. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health the Department that will oversee and undertake the day to day running of Covid-19 walk-in PCR testing and rapid antigen testing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16853/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra1022. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health if pharmacies or other authorised health providers will be involved in the delivery of Covid-19 walk-in PCR testing and rapid antigen testing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16869/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 1020 to 1022, inclusive, together.
As part of the HSE’s enhanced COVID-19 testing for local communities, from Thursday March 25th, five new ‘walk-in, no appointment necessary’ testing centres have been established to actively look for cases of COVID-19. These centres, which are opening in areas where the number of positive cases is particularly high, will allow people who don’t have symptoms of COVID-19 to get a free test without having to contact their GP first. Around 20% of people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic.
The testing centres will be open from Thursday, 25 March to Wednesday, 31 March from 11am to 7pm. Social distancing measures will apply as people turn up for testing.
Testing people with no symptoms will help to find positive cases earlier, will help in breaking chains of transmission and will help us better understand how and why the virus is spreading quicker in certain areas.
The initial locations at Blanchardstown, Grangegorman, Irishtown, Tallaght and Tullamore have been decided based on local disease prevalence and public health director’s advice. The locations will change week-on-week.
Anybody may use this free, walk-in COVID-19 testing provided they are aged 16 years and over; do not have symptoms of COVID-19 but would like to be tested; may not have their own GP (doctor); live within 5k of the walk-in testing centre.
Persons who want to be tested should bring photo ID and provide a mobile phone number so the HSE can contact them with their results. Working with the National Ambulance Service, the HSE aims to carry out 300-500 COVID-19 tests per day at each walk-in centre. Any detected cases will be referred to contact tracing in the same way as detected cases that were referred through by a GP.
The HSE has deployed antigen detection tests (ADTs) for use in specific indications in the acute hospital setting, and as part of the response to outbreaks in the community setting in symptomatic vulnerable populations and their close contacts, supported by appropriate clinical governance and operational arrangements. This includes updating the case definition for SARS-CoV-2 to accept notification of positive results from ADTs undertaken in the public health system and reporting of such cases to the COVID Care tracker and to the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) information system developed to manage the surveillance and control of infectious diseases in Ireland.
Considerable work has been undertaken to date to evaluate the use of ADTS in an Irish context and this will continue on an ongoing basis due to the role they can have in the national testing strategy. In particular, further setting-specific ADT validation work continues to be undertaken by the HSE. Antigen testing will not, however, replace the requirement for large scale PCR testing which remains the gold standard for community testing.
I have also set up a group, chaired by the government’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Mark Ferguson, to examine the use of rapid tests in the community, and I will be considering the recommendations of this group.
On an ongoing basis, NPHET considers and reviews, based on public health risk assessments, how best to target testing to detect, and mitigate the impact of, the virus across the population. This includes keeping Ireland’s national testing policy under continuing review.
1023. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health the status of an appointment for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16873/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The HSE is currently recommending that only critical time dependent elective procedures are undertaken at this time due to the on-going and significant increased demand for bed capacity related to COVID-19.
This decision was made arising from the rapid increase in COVID-19 admissions and to ensure patient safety and that all appropriate resources were made available for COVID-19 related activity and time-critical essential work.
Patient safety remains at the centre of all hospital activity and elective care scheduling. To ensure services are provided in a safe, clinically-aligned and prioritised way, hospitals are following HSE clinical guidelines and protocols.
On 23 March the HSE published the “Safe Return to Health Services Plan”. This plan outlines a three phased approach for the proposed restoration of services across Community Services, Acute Hospital Operations, Cancer Services and Screening Services. It sets target times for their safe return and details the conditions and challenges that will have to be met.
Every phase of the plan has been informed by clinical guidance and putting patient and staff safety first.
Decisions in relation to the type and volume of activity will be made at site level based on local COVID-19 numbers, available capacity and guidance from national clinical leads.
The schedule outlined in the plan for resumption of services will be regularly monitored by the HSE and updated as appropriate, dependant on public health advice and healthcare capacity.
Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.
The National Waiting List Management Policy is a standardised approach used by the HSE to manage scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures. It sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists and was developed in 2014 to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care.
In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1024. Deputy Martin Browne asked the Minister for Health the number of nursing positions vacant in the South/South West Hospital Group as of 22 March 2021, in tabular form. [16882/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1025. Deputy Martin Browne asked the Minister for Health the number of full-time podiatrist positions in South Tipperary General Hospital in 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form. [16883/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
