Tag Archives: Department of Health

Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health will leave his post at the end of the month

Hmm.

This afternoon.

More as we get it.

Dr Ronan Glynn resigns as Deputy CMO (RTE)

Meanwhile…

Dr Tony Holohan, CMO, and Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy CMO, in 2020

…Social Democrats Health Spokesperson Róisín Shortall said:

“Questions must now be asked of the Health Minister about the departure of the two most senior people tasked with leading the public health response to Covid-19. The Department of Health is chiefly to blame for Dr. Tony Holohan’s proposed secondment to Trinity College being abandoned.

“Is that controversy also at the root of Dr Glynn’s decision to leave the public service?

“There have now been a number of high profile resignations during Health Minster Stephen Donnelly’s tenure in office. The two individuals tasked with implementing Sláintecare, Sláintecare executive director and Department of Health assistant secretary Laura Magahy and Chairman of the Sláintecare Implementation Advisory Committee Tom Keane, resigned last year because of resistance within the HSE and the Department of Health to implementing the plan.

“Meanwhile, Dr Tony Holohan and HSE chief operations officer Ann O’Connor also tendered their resignations recently. Given the exodus of high level staff from the Department of Health and the health service, questions must now be asked of the Minister leading that Department.

“We have heard a lot recently about lessons being learned within the Department. Is the Minister satisfied that staff are properly supported, or are there further lessons the Minister needs to learn about retaining highly qualified people in their hugely important roles?”

RollingNews

Above from left: Jared Gormly, Head of HSE Spark Innovation programme, Dermot Burke, HSCP Innovation Fellow, Amy Carroll, Nursing/Midwifery Innovation Fellow, Minister Stephen Donnelly, Dr Rachel McNamara, NCHD Innovation Fellow, Prof Martin Curley, HSE Digital Transformation

This afternoon.

Baggott Street, Dublin 2.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly at the Department of health launches the Hospital Innovation Fund – a collaboration between the Spark Innovation Programme, HSE Digital Transformation Office, the Acute Hospital Division and the HSE Change Guide – funding approved for projects impacting on waiting lists, capacity, digital transformation and improving patient care.

Meanwhile…

This afternoon.

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health this afternoon

This afternoon.

Department of Health, Dublin 2.

Via RTÉ News:

The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said NPHET has been very clear that people need to be mindful about social contacts; that they need to be halved in order to get transmission of the virus under control.

He said the chance of someone “bumping into the virus” while out is “very high“.

However…

A key difference between this and last Christmas is that most of the population is vaccinated – that allows so much of society to remain open, Dr Holohan said.

Good times.

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

Acceleration of Covid cases giving ‘concern’, says NPHET (RTE)

RollingNews

This afternoon.

Government Buildings, Dublin 2.

Members of a group representing ‘brides-to-be’ celebrate the relaxation of the guest limit for wedding receptions to 100 guests from August 5.

Earlier…



This morning/afternoon.

Outside the Department of Health, Baggott Street, Dublin 2.

A spontaneous outpouring?

Or something more organised?

We may never know.

Wedding numbers rise to 100 after 5 August (RTÉ)

Sam Boal/RollingNews

This morning.

Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Newly-appointed, well renumerated, secretary general at Department of Health Robert Watt enters Kildare House to report to the Oireachtas Health Committee.

The Committee will question him about the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme which alleged that the Department of Health was secretly compiling dossiers on children with autism.

Sam Boal/RollingNews

Professor Pete Lunn of the ERSI, at a media briefing yesterday  at the Department of Health

Last night.

At a Department of Health covid briefing.

Professor Pete Lunn, from the ESRI behavioural research unit, said a “small minority” of people are showing more risky behaviour:

“What has happened here is there has been clear slippage in people following the restrictions and primarily it is not that they are rejecting them, it is not that they are saying they don’t believe in them anymore, it is that there is pushing of the boundaries.

“The primary pushing of the boundaries is social visits to other people’s houses and that we would see as being the biggest behaviour change that is risky.”

Meanwhile…

Dr Ronan Glynn [ Deputy Chief Medical Officer] said if people are mixing in the coming days, they should avoid doing this inside.

“Of course, we are aware that some households are going to do that and are doing that already but what we would say to people is: if you have made the decision to meet up with another household – while that is not our advice at the moment – if you’re going to do it, do it outdoors.”

“Meet up in parks, meet up outdoors over the coming days.”

Numbers presenting with Covid symptoms up 50% as ESRI note ‘clear slippage’ in public behaviour (Irish Examiner)

RollingNews

Last night.

RTÉ Investigates on Prime Time on RTÉ One.

Whistleblower Shane Corr (top) reveals how the Department of Health secretly used information from private doctor consultations to build and maintain dossiers on children with autism who were involved in legal actions against the State.

Almost 50 children with autism affected by secret dossiers (Irish Examiner)

The whistleblower exposing the Department of Health’s secret dossiers (Conor Ryan, RTÉ Investigates)

Meanwhile…

Ombudsman for Children Dr Niall Muldoon

This morning.

RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland.

Children’s Ombudsman Niall Muldoon was asked if he wanted the practice stopped, he said: “Absolutely”.

He added:

“There’s a couple of questions need to happen, statements need to come out: Has this stopped? And also has the Department of Health made immediate contact with the families involved? Because there’s hundreds of families out there worried that they might be the ones involved here?

“They might be the ones who have had information gathered on them. So we need to make sure that those families know that they have this information available.

“And, finally, we want to take a look at see has this been happening in other lawsuits in which children are involved. Because, again, if you consider this to be normal, than I would very concerned about the culture that you’re working in.”

Later, asked what the impact of the revelations on the relationship between children involved and those providing care to them, he said:

“It’s got to be damaging. As you heard [HSE CEO] Paul Reid say there, earlier on, confidentiality is the cornerstone of all medical and therapeutic services. Our children with autism are going to these therapeutic services with the sense this is about them and them only and no information will be shared outwards.

“But to find that, if a child has a meltdown, or has some sort of challenging behaviour situation, that that is recorded for nobody to look at, not for a lawyer to use against them, that’s the absolute opposite of therapeutic service.

“There’s real serious concerns from that regard. So we have to ask: who asked for the information? And who gave the information? And those answers are crucial.”

Yesterday: Sickening

RollingNews

This morning.

A disclosure to RTÉ Investigates by a whistleblower who works at the Department of Health claims the department is secretly using information from private doctor consultations to build and maintain dossiers on children with autism who were involved in legal actions against the State.

Via RTÉ News:

The dossiers, which include the sensitive medical and educational information of children involved in long-dormant court cases, were built and maintained over a number of years by the Department of Health without the knowledge or consent of parents.

The work was done with the cooperation of the Health Service Executive and the Department of Education, and involves detailed information sourced directly from confidential consultations that the children and their families had with doctors and other professionals.

Meanwhile…

These updates record issues related to children named in the court proceedings, as well as their parents and siblings. They also record details such as marital breakdowns among parents and addictions in the home.

The information was shared and gathered with the goal of aiding the Department of Health with a background legal strategy, such as in determining when it would be a good time to approach parents to settle or withdraw their case.

Department of Health built secret dossiers on children with autism (RTÉ)