Parliamentary questions

2308. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether Internal Audit Report OPS002CAPEST0924 identified deficiencies relating to vacant residential properties, vacant healthcare facilities, disposal decisions, property records or governance controls; and if she will provide details of any such findings. [43601/26]

2309. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any properties reviewed under Internal Audit Report OPS002CAPEST0924 had remained vacant for more than one year, two years and five years respectively; and if she will provide the numbers involved. [43602/26]

2310. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the recommendations arising from Internal Audit Report OPS002CAPEST0924 have been fully implemented; if not, the number outstanding; and the target completion date for each outstanding action. [43603/26]

2311. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any assessment has been undertaken of the impact of agency staffing restrictions on vacancy levels, service delivery, waiting lists or patient outcomes; and if she will provide copies of any such assessment. [43604/26]

2312. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health why the HSE does not centrally record vacancies arising from restrictions on agency staff recruitment despite operating a national agency reduction policy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43605/26]

2313. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether she is satisfied that the HSE can properly evaluate the effectiveness of its agency conversion programme when it does not record the number of vacancies attributable to agency recruitment restrictions. [43606/26]

2314. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any national workforce risk assessment has been undertaken regarding the possibility that agency staffing restrictions may result in funded posts remaining unfilled. [43607/26]

2315. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health to provide the vacancy rate by staff grade and health region for each month from January 2024 to date. [43608/26]

2316. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the number and percentage of consultants employed in the public health service who have not transitioned to the public-only consultant contract as of the most recent date available, broken down by specialty, hospital group and HSE Health Region. [43609/26]

2317. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether her Department has undertaken any assessment of the reasons consultants have not transitioned to the public-only consultant contract; and if so, whether she will provide a summary of the findings. [43610/26]

2318. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the targets, if any, established by her Department for uptake of the public-only consultant contract in each year since its introduction; the extent to which those targets have been achieved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43611/26]

2319. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health what evidence her Department has gathered regarding the impact of the public-only consultant contract on hospital overcrowding, emergency department waiting times and inpatient waiting lists since March 2023. [43612/26]

2320. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether an evaluation has been undertaken of the effectiveness of the public-only consultant contract as a mechanism to reduce trolley numbers and improve patient access to consultant-led care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43613/26]

2321. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the key performance indicators used by her Department to measure the success of the public-only consultant contract; the most recent performance against those indicators; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43614/26]

2322. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the number of consultant posts approved for recruitment under the public-only consultant contract in each year since 2023; the number filled; the number remaining vacant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43615/26]

2323. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the number of consultant recruitment campaigns undertaken since 2023 that failed to result in an appointment to a public-only consultant contract post, by specialty and HSE Health Region. [43616/26]

2324. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the estimated annual additional Exchequer cost associated with the introduction of the public-only consultant contract since 2023; the budget provided for this purpose in each year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43617/26]

2325. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether a value-for-money review of the public-only consultant contract has been undertaken since its introduction; and if not, whether such a review is planned. [43618/26]

2326. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether she is satisfied that the absence of formal national criteria governing the suspension or reassignment of healthcare professionals subject to criminal investigation for serious offences provides sufficient consistency and patient-safety assurance across all HSE regions. [43619/26]

2327. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any review, analysis, assessment, briefing, report, business case, internal examination or other evaluation has been undertaken since 1 January 2024 regarding the drivers of variation in reimbursement costs for salbutamol nebule products under the General Medical Services Scheme; if so, to provide the date, author, purpose and principa…

2328. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any national respiratory disease monitoring, surveillance, forecasting, winter-planning, population-health management or health-service demand forecasting system currently incorporates prescribing, reimbursement or utilisation data held by the Primary Care Reimbursement Service; if so, to identify each such system, the datasets used, t…

2329. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department of Health, the HSE, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the National Clinical Programme for Respiratory Health, the Central Statistics Office, or any other public body has undertaken an assessment of the potential use of Primary Care Reimbursement Service prescribing or reimbursement data as an early-warning indic…

2330. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the two System Analysis Reviews identified by the National Ambulance Service as involving ambulance allocation or dispatch delays since 2020 resulted in recommendations, corrective actions, policy changes or service improvements; and if so, to provide details. [43664/26]

2331. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the two incidents involving delayed ambulance allocation that were escalated through the Enterprise Risk Register, Serious Incident Management Team or National Incident Management System involved patient death, serious harm, permanent injury or other adverse clinical outcomes; and if they cannot provide details for confidentiality reas…

2332. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether they are satisfied that the National Ambulance Service does not routinely maintain datasets recording prolonged ambulance allocation delays, longest allocation delays, or correlations between dispatch delays and patient outcomes; and whether any plans exist to introduce such monitoring and reporting arrangements. [43666/26]