Written Answers Nos. 625-645
626. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Health the number of vacant consultant posts by speciality that are currently in Naas General Hospital; and when each vacant consultant post will be filled in tabular form. [43394/21]
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.
627. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Health the number of paediatric bone densitometry scanners in each of the paediatric hospitals, in tabular form; and if all scanners are sufficiently staffed. [43395/21]
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.
628. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Health the number of minors on dialysis to date in 2021 as compared to 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43428/21]
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.
629. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Health the number of minors awaiting a kidney transplant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43429/21]
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.
630. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Health the number of minors who received a kidney transplant in 2020 and to date in 2021, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43430/21]
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.
631. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Health if he will take steps to ensure that all surplus Covid-19 vaccines, many of which are approaching their expiration date are immediately collected and dispatched to countries that need them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43466/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraIreland's COVID-19 vaccination programme strategy is to distribute all available vaccines as quickly as is operationally possible, prioritising those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.
The programme is based on the principles of safety, effectiveness and fairness, with the objective of reducing severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19 infection. Ireland's COVID-19 vaccination programme will offer vaccination to all Irish residents for whom it is deemed safe, based on clinical expert guidance, and who wish to receive it.
Ireland is participating in a Procurement Exercise being operated by the European Commission on behalf of Member States to procure suitable, safe and effective vaccines, in sufficient quantities, to combat COVID-19. Four vaccines have been authorised by the EU, and a number of vaccine candidates are still to be fully assessed. Ireland fully supports efforts by the international community, including as an EU Member State, to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all.
To contribute towards this objective, Ireland will utilise the sharing mechanisms available through the EU procurement structure. It is expected that COVAX will be central to this sharing mechanism. With the continuing progress of the domestic vaccination program, greater clarity on the available quantities of vaccines doses and the initial timing that these can be shared with COVAX, is becoming apparent. The Department is in current liaison with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the European Commission and COVAX to ensure that Ireland’s participation, in concert with other Member States, happens in a timely and proportionate manner.
632. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) will receive a date for a knee operation in Galway University Hospital taking into account the exceptional circumstances in this case; if the person will be considered for the surgery under the National Treatment Purchase Fund given the severity of their condition; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43469/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) works with public hospitals, as opposed to with patients directly, to offer and provide the funding for treatment to clinically suitable long waiting patients who are on an inpatient/day case waiting list for surgery, having been referred on to such a list following clinical assessment by a consultant/specialist at an outpatient clinic.
The key criteria of the NTPF is the prioritisation of the longest waiting patients first. While the NTPF identifies patients eligible for NTPF treatment, it is solely on the basis of their time spent on the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List. The clinical suitability of the patient to avail of NTPF funded treatment is determined by the public hospital.
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.
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.
633. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health his plans to reinstate ophthalmic services at Letterkenny University Hospital to complement the community ophthalmic services in County Donegal. [43480/21]
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.
634. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health the number of doctors on duty at Letterkenny University Hospital from 10pm to 7am, seven days a week in each of the years 2016 to 2020 and to date in 2021. [43481/21]
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.
635. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health the number of women currently awaiting a cervical screening test or smear test in County Donegal. [43482/21]
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.
636. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a recommendation by a person (details supplied); if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that in the Critical Care Strategic Plan 2020 and HSE National Service Plan 2021 there was no mention of development in Letterkenny University Hospital; and if he will ask for a review of these plans given the plan increases critical care beds from 255 to 446 an increase of 191 beds in Dublin, Limerick and Cork and not one for the northwest. [43483/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Strategic Plan for Critical Care, which was noted by Government in 2020, aims to address the acknowledged deficit in critical care capacity in our acute hospital system. The Plan provides for an increase in capacity from the 2020 baseline of 255 critical care beds, to 446 over time.
Funding of €52m was provided by Government in Budget 2021 to commence implementation of Phase 1 of the Plan. This provides for the permanent retention of 40 additional critical care beds which were funded temporarily in 2020 as part of the Covid response, including one bed in Letterkenny. It also provides for the opening of a further 26 beds in new build capacity in Limerick, the Mater and Tallaght hospitals. The HSE has advised that 41 in total of the additional beds are now open, bringing baseline capacity to 296 although the number of beds open on any given day fluctuates as a result of a variety of factors.
The Plan is clinically led, and aligns with the hub-and-spoke model of care set out by the National Clinical Programme in Critical Care. It also addresses the recommendations of the Health Service Capacity Review in respect of critical care, and is fully in line with the vision set out in Sláintecare of "right care, right place, right time".
637. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health the breakdown of the budget for aids and appliances for persons with disabilities for each of the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43485/21]
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.
638. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health if the cost of PPE has been included in the budget for appliances for persons with disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43484/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra641. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health if the inclusion of PPE in the budget for appliances for persons with disabilities will result in patients receiving inferior care or quality of prosthetic limbs, surgical footwear, hearing aid and personal emergency response systems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43489/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 638 and 641 together.
As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
639. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health the average cost of the various personal emergency response systems, surgical footwear, hearing aids and prosthetic limbs provided by the HSE, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43487/21]
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.
640. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health the breakdown of the costs incurred with the provision and care of persons with hearing aids, surgical footwear prosthetic limbs in 2018, 2019 and 2020, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43488/21]
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.
642. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health if he has considered having the budget for the provision of prosthetic limbs separate to the overall budget for appliances for persons with disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43486/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Minister has not received a request of this nature from the Health Service Executive (HSE).
However, a HSE Primary Care led National Service Improvement Programme, established in 2019, has the aim of improving the quality and sustainability of the Community Funded Schemes through the establishment of national standards. This will aim to provide equity of access, value for money, and a management system that ensures compliance with those standards and objectives. Standards will be based on clear evidence-based rationale and will include a list of approved items, national prescribing guidelines and clinical criteria for each.
Both Aids and Appliances, and Prosthetics, are being considered within this Programme. While the work of the Programme was disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic, and further impacted by the recent cyber-attack, as the situation regarding the pandemic continues to improve, the work of the Programme will gather pace.
643. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if ICU beds were closed or taken out of use at Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan in the past six months; if so, when these ICU beds were closed or taken out of use; the reason for same; and the number of fatalities that occurred in the emergency department at the hospital in each month over the past year. [43490/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra644. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if a decision has been made by his Department and by the board of the HSE to close the emergency department at Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan for any hours overnight; the opening times the emergency department would have if the decision was implemented; when the Ireland East Group plan to implement this decision given that Drogheda Hospital and Connolly Hospital are under enormous pressure, that Covid-19 is still circulating in the community and that nearly one million persons are on hospital waiting lists; and his views on whether the decision to seek the overnight closure of the emergency department in Navan is a reckless and dangerous one. [43491/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 643 and 644 together.
Our Lady’s Hospital Navan is part of the Ireland East Hospital Group. In 2013 Our Lady’s Hospital Navan was included in the list of designated Model 2 Hospitals under the Smaller Hospitals Framework.
Every hospital in the Group, large and small, has a vital role to play within the Group, with smaller hospitals, such as Navan Hospital, managing routine, urgent or planned care locally and more complex care managed in the larger hospitals. The Hospital Group is engaged in a programme of re-design work to further integrate and enhance the role of Navan Hospital within the Group and to ensure that it will provide more services safely and appropriately with better linkages to primary, continuing and social care.
The Hospital Group has been developing an Implementation Plan for future service configuration at Navan Hospital. Proposed changes to any Emergency Department service will only take place in the context of overall service developments for both the hospital and Group. With specific reference to Our Lady’s Hospital Navan, it will include the development of a 24 /7 Acute Medical Assessment Unit at Navan, an extended role for the hospital in areas such as delivery of day and ambulatory surgical activity to support the overall delivery of access to care targets for the Group, and strengthened links with the Mater in terms of clinical governance and patient safety. Reconfiguration will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner on completion of the necessary planning. It is intended that the Hospital Group will continue to engage closely with all interested parties to ensure that the needs of patients, staff, the local and wider community are addressed.
In relation to critical care beds at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan, and in relation to fatalities in the Emergency Department, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy with the requested detail.
645. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health when he expects the director of decision support services to submit the code of practice in respect of Part 8 of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 to him for approval and publication in view of the inordinate delay since December 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43495/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraPart 8 of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 provides a legislative framework for Advanced Healthcare Directives (AHDs). The AHD multidisciplinary working group established by the Minister in 2016 has developed codes of practice for Part 8 and submitted it to the Director of Decision Support Services in December 2018 for consideration. Under the Act of 2015, the Director must put the codes out to consultation before being finalised. My Department expects to be informed of the timeline for these consultations shortly. As soon as the Department receives these timelines from the DSS, we will forward them to the TD directly.
