Results 2,041-2,060 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: Moving on from that, my understanding is the number of beds in public nursing homes has reduced in real terms but the costs continue to go up. Can efficiencies be created in that area? For instance, some of the public nursing homes got an increase of more than 12% under the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, whereas some of the private nursing homes got an increase of 1.5%. That...

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive: Financial Statements 2023 (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: I accept that but, for instance, the owners of one nursing home came to me. It is tied by section 38 regulations regarding salaries and everything else but it got an increase of 1.5%. They are now talking about cutting back, reducing the number of beds they are going to provide because they cannot keep going. They are now in a loss-making situation. I acknowledge the NTPF is not under Mr....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: No.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: 47. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the action his Department is taking to progress the north ring road in Cork city; what level of funding will be allocated for the coming year, in view of the large volume of traffic which is now forced to travel through Mayfield, including traffic heading for the port facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43081/23]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: 67. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the action his Department is taking to progress the Mallow relief road project; what level of funding will be allocated for the coming year, in view that €100,000 was allocated in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43080/23]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Services (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: 170. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the action his Department is taking to improve the bus service in Cork in view that there are recurring issues with reliability and capacity; if additional funding will be provided to improve the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43199/23]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: 171. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide an update on progress made to date on the Banduff road scheme project; the level of funding that will be provided by the Department for the project in the coming year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43200/23]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (5 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: 349. To ask the Minister for Health when the review of cardiac services will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43378/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: I want to raise the issue of nursing home inspections and the challenges being faced in this regard. There is a huge variation regarding funding for public nursing homes and private nursing homes. Do the witnesses see this in their visits to private nursing homes? Obviously, there are far more challenges in private nursing homes because of the fact that they are finding it more difficult...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: Yes, I accept that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: In fairness, 41 private nursing homes have closed in the past four years. This is a loss of 1,200 beds, so obviously there are challenges there. Is it coming up as an issue when HIQA does inspections in the sense that corners are being cut because the same level of funding is not available?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: With regard to public nursing homes, for instance, I was speaking in County Kilkenny recently and one of the ratios I saw was that a public nursing home bed costs approximately €2,000 per week. A private nursing home was getting slightly over €1,000. There is a 98.5% differential. Because public nursing homes are getting, obviously, nearly double the money, is HIQA then still...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: The number of beds has been reduced in public nursing homes. As I understand it, the number of staff has not been reduced. How many public beds are there currently and how many were there four years ago?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: With regard to the 5,110 places, is that a reduction on what was available four years ago?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: Ms Grogan might get those for me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: I would appreciate that. HIQA had a problem with discharges out of the hospital in Galway. There was a difficulty with discharges from the hospital because of the fact that contracted beds were not available from the HSE. Is that a problem in a number of other areas as regards getting people out of hospital because there is not sufficient step-down facilities? Is HIQA finding that a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: One of the issues that occurred in the last week of December last year and in early January this year was that an awful lot of contracted beds in private nursing homes were not occupied. Accident and emergency departments were jammed but people were not being discharged, even though there were vacant contracted beds available.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: There is a challenge in all of this about home care at the moment. The big challenge is getting staff. The issue of the number of beds that are occupied by people who could have been discharged consistently comes up. For instance, I knew of three people at one stage in Cork University Hospital, CUH, who could have been discharged. In fact, one was in hospital for 12 months more than he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: HIQA Report 2022: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Colm Burke: Absolutely.