Health Minister, Robin Swann answers Members questions on 16 March 2021. Read the Official Report (Hansard).
Each of the questions answered have been chaptered in the video to help you find them more easily.
Chapters / Questions
00:00 – Care Partners Scheme: Uptake
1. Mr McGlone asked the Minister of Health for his assessment of the uptake of the care partners scheme in care homes.
6:59 – Physical and Sensory Disability Day Centre: West Tyrone
2. Mr McHugh asked the Minister of Health whether his Department has given any consideration to locating a physical and sensory disability day centre in West Tyrone.
14:02 – Health Service: Post-pandemic Plans
4. Mr M Bradley asked the Minister of Health to outline his plans to reshape the health service post pandemic.
22:48 – Mother-and-baby Homes: Records
5. Ms Dillon asked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to ensure the protection of records from mother-and-baby homes.
27:03 – Medical Procedures: Cancellations
6. Mr Stalford asked the Minister of Health how many medical procedures, not related to COVID-19, have been cancelled across all health and social care trusts since March 2020.
Topical Questions
31:01 – Republic of Ireland: Health MOU
T1. Ms Bailey asked the Minister of Health what areas of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Republic of Ireland will be reviewed and how that will proceed, given that, in response to a question from Mr Allister yesterday, he stated that, on finding out about the Republic of Ireland’s issues with the AstraZeneca vaccine, he asked the Chief Medical Officer to review the terms of the memorandum of understanding.
34:02 – Lockdown Data: Complexity
T2. Mr Stalford asked the Minister of Health whether he believes that the data that has informed the Government’s lockdown decisions is too complex to be shared with the public.
35:24 – Health Professionals: Cross-border Registration
T3. Mr Sheehan asked the Minister of Health, having previously acknowledged the benefits of cross-border health services, to outline what services will be impacted on by his Department’s decision to require health professionals to be registered, North and South.
37:24 – AstraZeneca: Withdrawal from Use
T4. Mr Buckley asked the Minister of Health whether, in light of the withdrawal of AstraZeneca in many European countries, he has received any pressure whatsoever to withdraw it from use here, albeit when we look back over the period of COVID-19, there will be many points of difference between us as to the response, but one thing that we will all be able to take pride in will be the vaccination programme, with the NHS deserving thanks for the diligent way in which it has carried out that service.
39:50 – Domiciliary Care
T5. Mr McGlone asked the Minister of Health what measures have been taken at departmental level with the trusts to ensure that domiciliary care packages are established in areas where there are and have been voids for quite a considerable time, leaving elderly people and disabled people isolated.
42:21 – Health Professionals: Cross-border Registration
T6. Mr O’Toole asked the Minister of Health to guarantee that the anomaly that means that cross-border healthcare workers will have to register with professional bodies, North and South, will not impact on cross-border healthcare, including the transportation of sick children to hospital in Dublin, given that, in an earlier answer, he mentioned that that was an outworking of the protocol when, with respect, that is not true — it is not in the protocol — but is an area where, because previous EU legislation no longer applies and it is not covered by the protocol, these people are having to register.