Written Answers Nos. 1530-1555
1530. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 796 of 10 May 2022, if outpatient speech and language therapy appointments will be available in Sligo University Hospital over the next 12 months (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29646/22]
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.
1531. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the visiting hours for long-stay patients in a hospital (details supplied); his views on same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29671/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service issue I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy.
1532. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of children with scoliosis who are waiting for a procedure; the number waiting greater than six and 12 months in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29674/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn February of this year I met with senior officials of Children’s Heath Ireland (CHI) and the HSE, as well as senior orthopaedic clinicians from Temple Street, Crumlin and Cappagh, to discuss the finalisation of proposals to increase orthopaedic activity at CHI. The plan proposes ambitious additional activity levels which will work to reduce the number of children waiting for spinal orthopaedic procedures (scoliosis and spina bifida) by year end.
This latest initiative is further evidence of this Government’s commitment to address the issues facing these children. Both current and capital funding has been provided in 2022 to support this initiative.
In relation to the details requested by the Deputy, I have referred your question to the HSE and asked them to provide you with a direct response.
1533. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of children with spina bifida who are waiting for an orthopaedic or urology procedure; the number waiting greater than six and 12 months, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29675/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn February of this year I met with senior officials of Children’s Heath Ireland (CHI) and the HSE, as well as senior orthopaedic clinicians from Temple Street, Crumlin and Cappagh, to discuss the finalisation of proposals to increase orthopaedic activity at CHI. The plan proposes ambitious additional activity levels which will work to reduce the number of children waiting for spinal orthopaedic procedures (scoliosis and spina bifida) by year end.
This latest initiative is further evidence of this Government’s commitment to address the issues facing these children. Both current and capital funding has been provided in 2022 to support this initiative.
In relation to the details requested by the Deputy, I have referred your question to the HSE and asked them to provide you with a direct response.
1534. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of cancer-related appointments by appointment type cancelled in May 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29676/22]
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.
1535. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of paediatric orthopaedic appointments by appointment type cancelled in May 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29677/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI fully acknowledge the distress and inconvenience for patients and their families when elective procedures are cancelled, particularly for clinically urgent procedures. While every effort is made to avoid cancellation or postponement of planned procedures, the HSE has advised that planned procedures and operations can be postponed or cancelled for a variety of reasons including capacity issues due to increased scheduled and unscheduled care demand.
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.
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.
1536. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of patients who have experienced one to two, two to three, three to four and more than four cancellations in the previous 24 months to May 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29678/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI fully acknowledge the distress and inconvenience for patients and their families when elective procedures are cancelled, particularly for clinically urgent procedures. While every effort is made to avoid cancellation or postponement of planned procedures, the HSE has advised that planned procedures and operations can be postponed or cancelled for a variety of reasons including capacity issues due to increased scheduled and unscheduled care demand.
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.
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.
1537. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of persons on diagnostic waiting lists at the end of May 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29679/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe latest available diagnostic waiting list data is outlined in the document attached, which sets out waiting list data for Quarter 1 2022 for CT, MRI and Ultrasound. The HSE advises that, at present, further diagnostic scans (including cholangiopancreatography, electroencephalogram, angiogram, and bone scan), are not yet captured as part of this project.
The HSE advises that a pilot project commenced in 2016 by the HSE Acute Hospitals Division to progress the collection of national radiology waiting list data. The project has been supported by the Radiology Clinical Care Programme and has involved key stakeholders across the system including the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) Team, Hospital Groups, and the support of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) for data collection and data management expertise.
The information that is currently being collected is presently being tested and validated at hospital, hospital group and national level and as such should not be used/reported without the context of the caveats set out below:
- Data is subject to inclusions and exclusions which are documented in the Data Profile Document. This document is available from Acute Operations and has been circulated to all Hospital Groups.
- Data contains urgent, routine and surveillance/planned activity which is currently not broken down in detail, as such this includes surveillance/planned activity which may not be exceeding planned date.
- Data is still undergoing validation at Hospital and Hospital Group level.
- Data does not take into account local nuances at site level (Site profile developed to support understanding of same).
- The purpose of this aggregate data is to provide a National Level overview of the number of patients waiting for modalities of CT, MRI and Ultrasound.
- This report is not intended to be used for the active management of hospital diagnostics waiting list, local reports and mechanisms should continue to be used for the management of diagnostics waiting lists at hospital level.
In Q1 2022, there were a total of 236,380 patients reported on the waiting list from all sites, this represents all outpatients waiting, urgent, semi urgent, routine and planned/surveillance (where diagnostic access is planned at particular time intervals).
1538. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of assaults recorded against medical, nursing, midwifery and other health and social care professionals across HSE hospitals and community healthcare facilities to date for May 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29680/22]
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.
1539. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of dentists who submitted claims under the dental treatment services scheme for January, February, March, April, and May 2022, by CHO and LHO in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29681/22]
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.
1540. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of patients aged 60 to 74 years and 75+ years on community healthcare waiting lists, by care group, in tabular form; the breakdown by length of wait; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29682/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1541. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of patients on community healthcare waiting lists, by care group in tabular form; the breakdown by length of wait and by age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29683/22]
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.
1542. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of scheduled care cancellations, by appointment type in the month of May, by hospital group and hospital in tabular form; the cause of cancellations that is hospital initiated, patient initiated and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29684/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI fully acknowledge the distress and inconvenience for patients and their families when elective procedures are cancelled, particularly for clinically urgent procedures. While every effort is made to avoid cancellation or postponement of planned procedures, the HSE has advised that planned procedures and operations can be postponed or cancelled for a variety of reasons including capacity issues due to increased scheduled and unscheduled care demand.
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.
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.
1543. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the mean, median and maximum patient experience time to admission for all patients for emergency department admissions and broken down for those under 75 and 75+ years of age for each emergency department for each statutory HSE and public voluntary hospital by hospital group in May 2022 totalled for each category and group in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29685/22]
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.
1544. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the mean, median, and maximum patient experience time to admission for all patients and for those under 75 and 75-plus years of age for emergency department admissions for each emergency department, for each statutory HSE and public voluntary hospital by hospital group for each month in 2022 to date totalled for each category and group in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29686/22]
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.
1545. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number and percentage of patients who waited zero to six, six to 12, 12 to 24, 24 to 36, 36 to 48 and 48-plus hours for admission via an emergency department for each emergency department in May 2022 in tabular form; the number of patients aged over 60 and over 75 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29687/22]
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.
1546. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the State-wide mean, median, and maximum time to admission via an emergency department for all patients, under 75, and 75-plus years of age for January, February, March, April and May 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29688/22]
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.
1547. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Health the estimated annual first-year and full year cost of implementing the Workplace Relations Commission agreement for all section 39 workers in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29693/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder Section 39 of the Health Act 2004, the HSE provides financial assistance to organisations to provide services similar or supplementary to a service that the HSE may provide. However, Section 39 organisations are privately owned and run, and staff in these organisations are not public servants. Their terms and conditions of employment, once in line with employment legislation, are strictly between the employer and the employee.
In 2018, the HSE conducted a data gathering exercise in relation to an agreed list of 50 pilot organisations. The results of this analysis formed the basis of an engagement, facilitated by the Workplace Relations Commission. It showed that of those that returned data, different measures were taken in different organisations to achieve savings – in some places pay was cut, in others pay was not cut. In a number of instances, pay had already been restored.
An agreement was reached by the parties in October 2018, in relation to a process of pay restoration for staff employed by the 50 pilot agencies. Pay restoration commenced in April 2019 with an annual pay increase of up to €1,000. Any outstanding balance was paid in 2020 and 2021. A further WRC engagement followed in December 2020 in relation to a final phase of 250 organisations who were identified as part of the earlier agreement. A payment arrangement consisting of three phases was agreed with the first two payments to be made in 2021, and the third and final payment due to be made in 2023.
Pay restoration was applicable to Section 39 organisations who met certain criteria, rather than types of individual workers that are employed in them. Eligible Section 39 organisations included only agencies that had service arrangements in place back in 2013 and that were still under service arrangements in 2019. Only organisations who received in excess of an agreed, specified amount from the HSE by way of the Service Level Agreement process were included.
Pay restoration is absolutely limited and only applicable to those included in the initial WRC agreement. There is no scope to revisit the eligibility criteria for the process and that the process has reached a final resolution. As such, I am not in a position to provide detail on costs associated with introducing pay restoration for Section 39 organisations which fell outside of the 250 organisations included in the initial WRC agreement.
1548. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if he will outline in detail his Department’s plans to tackle inequality in access to testing and treatment of hepatitis C outside of Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29698/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra1549. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if he will outline in detail the plans his Department has to accelerate hepatitis C elimination considering Ireland is 21 years behind schedule in its target to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29699/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra1550. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if consideration will be given to the creation of a public information campaign to reach persons who are unaware that they are infected with hepatitis C and to help destigmatise the disease; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29700/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra1551. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if consideration will be given to implementing the recommendations of a report published by an organisation (details supplied) in order to eliminate the hepatitis C virus as a public health threat by 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29701/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 1548, 1549, 1550 and 1551 together.
Hepatitis C virus is a major cause of liver disease worldwide with an estimated 80 million people chronically infected. Ireland views Hepatitis C as a public health threat and is committed to the WHO target of eliminating it by 2030.
The HSE established a National Hepatitis C Treatment Programme (NHCTP) in 2015 and began the process of providing treatment for Hepatitis C using Directly Acting Antivirals to patients prioritised according to clinical need.
Since 2016, the HSE in its National Service Plans has committed to the continued implementation of a multi annual public health plan for the therapeutic treatment across a range of healthcare settings to all persons living with Hepatitis C in Ireland. The NHCTP goal is to make hepatitis C a rare disease in Ireland by 2026, and in accordance with the WHO target, to eliminate it in Ireland by 2030. In order to achieve this, the NHCTP has been allocated funding of €25m each year.
The NHCTP works in partnership with the Irish Prison Service nationally, and with Hospital and community teams, to provide outreach to all prisoners that require treatment for Hepatitis C.
Since its inception in 2015, the NHCTP has treated over 6,600 patients with Hepatitis C virus. The focus has been in the east of the country as the evidence to date has indicated that this is where the highest population needing Hepatitis C treatment has resided. The NHCTP’s Community Prescribing Project has been developed to widen the availability of the Hepatitis C treatment to enable GPs to treat people who are on opioid substitution treatment across the country. The Community Prescribing Project will expand in the future to be available for people not on the opioid substitution treatment scheme.
In addition, an online home testing option is currently being scoped by the NHCTP and will expand the testing and treatment to people who are currently undiagnosed. It is anticipated that this will be available later this year. The NHCTP will utilise all possible treatment options and the medical needs of individuals identified will dictate which care pathway is best. Treatment will remain free to people regardless of where the service is delivered. The NHCTP will develop a communication plan to support the rollout of the home testing service later this year. This communication plan will also aim to destigmatise the testing and treatment associated with Hepatitis C.
The NHCTP reports that it is very much still on track to eliminate the Hepatitis C virus in Ireland by 2030.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) conducted a Health Technology Assessment regarding the feasibility of national birth cohort screening for the Hepatitis C virus. HIQA published the results of that Health Technology Assessment in 2021. It recommended a national program of birth cohort testing for Hepatitis C for people in Ireland born between 1965 and 1985.
In collaboration with HIQA, the NHCTP is currently carrying out a national sero-prevalence study to estimate the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus infection in that Irish birth cohort (i.e., those born between 1965 and 1985). The study is being carried out using residual sera from tests sent in by general practitioners (GPs). To date 6,000 samples have been analysed and the results are expected by the end of July 2022. This study will give indications of what percentage of the population have the Hepatitis C virus, but all indications are that the remaining number of people to be treated are low.
1552. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the reason that Beaumont Hospital is short five neurology nurse specialists (details supplied); the efforts that are being made to fill these posts; when the posts will be filled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29702/22]
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.
1553. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the number of emergency department attendances at Cavan General Hospital in each of the years 2012 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29717/22]
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.
1554. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the number of cases seen by the minor injuries unit in Monaghan Hospital in each of the years 2012 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29718/22]
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.
1555. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Health the number of full-time midwives working in the maternity department of Cavan General Hospital in each of the past five years in tabular form. [29719/22]
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.
