Written Answers Nos. 1328-1349
1328. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Health further to the programme for Government commitment, if she will ensure the full implementation of the recommendations of the HSE/Dublin City Council Joint Ambulance Service Delivery, Task and Finish Group in an expeditious manner that restores funding to Dublin City Council and ensures continuity of service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3474/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, there exists a longstanding and cooperative relationship between Dublin City Council (DCC), Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) and the HSE National Ambulance Service (NAS) on the day-to-day delivery of ambulance services in Dublin.
A Task and Finish Group was established in 2022 by the then Minister for Health and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which made recommendations in 2023 to further enhance collaboration between the NAS and the DFB to improve service delivery and patient safety. The Group's recommendations were brought to Government in 2024.
Included in the recommendations of the Task and Finish Group was the establishment of a Joint DFB & NAS Emergency Ambulance Collaboration Group to facilitate further engagement between the services on a range of operational and clinical matters. This Group met for the first time in August 2024 and their work is ongoing, with a number of productive meetings held to date.
I welcome the work carried out by the Task and Finish Group, and the levels of ongoing engagement between the two ambulance services on improving ambulance service delivery in Dublin.
1329. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Health for an update in relation to the proposed HSE primary health care centres in Rathmines, Baggot Street and Terenure; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3475/25]
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.
1330. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of assaults recorded against patients at HSE facilities for each quarter for each of the years 2019 to 2024, in tabular form. [3487/25]
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.
1331. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of assaults recorded against staff at HSE facilities for each quarter for each of the years 2019 to 2024, in tabular form. [3488/25]
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.
1332. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of assaults recorded against patients at HSE facilities for each January and December for each of the years 2019 to 2025, in tabular form. [3489/25]
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.
1333. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of assaults recorded against staff at HSE facilities for each January and December for each of the years 2019 to 2025, in tabular form. [3490/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
1334. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health for a comparison of the percentage of clinical status 1 ECHO and clinical status 1 DELTA incidents responded to by a patient-carrying vehicle in 18 minutes and 59 seconds or less for each quarter for each year 2019-2024, inclusive, nationally and by ambulance region, in tabular form; the average length of such response times nationally and by region; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3495/25]
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.
1335. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health for a comparison of the number and percentage of incidents responded to by the ambulance service by clinical status and sub status for each quarter for each year 2019-2024, inclusive. [3496/25]
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.
1336. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health for a comparison of the average ambulance turnaround time at each emergency department for each quarter in 2023 and 2024, inclusive, in tabular form. [3497/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
1337. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of delayed transfers of care for each quarter of 2019 to 2024; the number of delayed discharges and the number as a percentage of all discharges; and the number of bed days lost and the number as a percentage of all bed days available for the period, at each location, in tabular form. [3499/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the deputy directly.
1338. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the bed occupancy rates of each public and public voluntary hospital, by hospital group, for each quarter of 2019 to 2024, and the national average, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3500/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I am referring the question to the HSE for a direct reply to the Deputy.
1339. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health for each model 3 and model 4 hospital, the number of days that full capacity protocols have been active, for each quarter of 2019 to 2024, in tabular form. [3501/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter, I am referring the question to the HSE for a direct reply to the Deputy.
1340. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of delayed transfers of care for each December and January for each year from 2019 to 2025; the number of delayed discharges and the number as a percentage of all discharges; and the number of bed days lost and the number as a percentage of all bed days available for the period, at each location in tabular form. [3502/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is an operational matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
1341. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the bed occupancy rates of each public and public voluntary hospital, by hospital group, for each December and January for each year from 2019 to 2025; and the national average, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3503/25]
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.
1342. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health for each model 3 and model 4 hospital, the number of days that full capacity protocols have been active, for each December and January for each year 2019-2025, inclusive, in tabular form. [3504/25]
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.
1343. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of patients on primary care and community healthcare waiting lists, for each care service, for December of each year 2019, 2023, and 2024 and for January 2025, in tabular form; the breakdown, by length of wait and by age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3505/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, it has been referred to the Health Service Executive for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
1344. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of persons on CAMHS waiting lists, by CHO and length of wait, at the end of each quarter of each year 2019 to 2024, in tabular form. [3508/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra1345. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of persons on CAMHS waiting lists, by CHO and length of wait, at the end of December and January of each year 2019 to 2025, in tabular form. [3509/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 1344 and 1345 together.
As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly as soon as possible.
1346. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health her views on the Report of the Review of the operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018; if she is taking steps to implement the recommendations of the report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3514/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe final Report of the Independent Review of the Operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 was submitted to my predecessor at the end of February 2023. It made a range of recommendations, most of which are operational in nature, with some proposing legislative change.
As agreed by Government the HSE established an implementation group to progress the operational recommendations.
Significant progress has already been made in this regard, for instance six additional hospitals started providing termination services in 2023, an increase of 55%.
Termination services in early pregnancy (up to 12 weeks) are currently provided in 17 of the 19 maternity hospitals, with the remaining two expected to come onboard shortly.
There has also been a sustained increase in community providers, As of January 2025, there are 448 Termination of Pregnancy providers in the community. This includes 437 GP contractors and 11 women’s health services contractors.
Safe Access Legislation passed both Houses of the Oireachtas and came into effect on the 17th October 2024.
Consideration of the proposed legislative changes is a matter for Government.
1347. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health if her Department supports the policy of conscientious objection in the Irish health service; if her Department has engaged with the HSE or any of the professional medical bodies to discuss changes to the current guidelines on the issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3515/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, section 22 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 deals with conscientious objection by members of medical staff in relation to the provision of termination of pregnancy services.
This section states that where he/she has a conscientious objection, a medical practitioner, nurse or midwife shall not be obliged to carry out, or participate in the carrying out, a termination of pregnancy.
In the event of a doctor, nurse or midwife having a difficulty in undertaking a required medical procedure, he or she will have a duty to make arrangements for the transfer of the woman’s care to a colleague.
The Act makes it clear that conscientious objection cannot be invoked in an emergency situation, when the risk to a pregnant woman’s life or health is immediate.
Conscientious objection is limited to persons involved in the delivery of the treatment only and does not extend to any other persons, or to institutions.
1348. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of persons on diagnostic waiting lists at the end of each quarter of 2022 to 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3521/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn 2022, in line with actions in the 2022 Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP), the Department of Health issued formal approval to the NTPF to commence work on the development and delivery of a National Radiology Diagnostic Protocol. In October 2024, the NTPF formally launched the first National Radiology Diagnostic Waiting List Management Protocol for the administrative management of patients on radiology diagnostic waiting lists in Irish public hospitals.
As well as ensuring that patients seeking access to Radiology Diagnostic services are administratively managed in a safe, timely, fair, and equitable manner whilst waiting, by standardising the management of patients, the protocol will facilitate improved data collection and reporting about patients on Radiology Diagnostic waiting lists.
In the interim, the information that is currently being collected as part of a pilot project is 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.
The NTPF provides my Department with quarterly reports which set out waiting list data for CT, MRI and Ultrasound. The HSE advises that, at present, further diagnostic scans (including cholangiopancreatography, electroencephalogram, angiogram, electrocardiogram and bone scan), are not yet captured as part of this project.
In response to previous Parliamentary Questions, the Deputy has been provided with reports for each quarter in 2022 and 2023, as well as for the first two quarters in 2024. The reports for quarters 3 and 4 in 2024 are set out at the links below.
At the end of Quarter 4 2024, there was a total of 300,115 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).
1349. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of dentists on the dental treatment services scheme at the end of each quarter for each year 2019-2024 and at end January 2025 by LHO in tabular form; the number of dentists who submitted claims and the total number of claims in quarter one of each year and each full year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3522/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
