Results 57,121-57,140 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: If we were to bring about some change in that area, what should we do at this level? What can Dr. Finnerty do at her level to co-ordinate the efforts with a view to addressing those particular deficiencies?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: The mental health services were always regarded as the Cinderella of the health service. Has the system improved in its favour or have things gone the other way in the past ten years? I ask mindful that we have incurred the most serious economic crash in our history and that two things came together as demand increased and resources decreased. That was very difficult to manage and still...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: We need better dispersal of what we have.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: How does the service become aware when children need attention? Do the referrals come from school medical examinations? Are they from reports from An Garda Síochána or some other source? Some time ago, I asked a parliamentary question on the number of children aged between eight and 13 years who had attended at emergency departments having self-harmed or attempted to do so, and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: On community services and adherence to medication programmes, one of the problems that I found over the years was an unwillingness in some cases to comply with medication requirements, which resulted in reversion and so on. How satisfied are the representatives here that adherence to medication programmes is respected and fully followed through in the community?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: One thing I have found with regard to medication for children and young people is that, in some cases, a parent may feel that the medication has an adverse effect on the child or teenager and decides not to pursue it. To my mind, this is a very false economy. I would like to see a more uniform process applying in all cases so that there would not be peaks and valleys in either the quality...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: ---
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: Briefly, do our witnesses have a means of comparing the standard and quality of our mental health services here with those in adjoining jurisdictions and, in particular, throughout Europe? Where do the best services apply? How do they do this comparison? How do we compare? What are their staffing levels like? Presumably, our eyewitnesses attend professional conferences at European and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: I thank Ms Smith for her reply. Is it not necessary on an ongoing basis to keep in touch with the standards and the quality of services available elsewhere in order that we do not slip too far one way or the other, but more particularly, in order to be able to address the areas of particular deficiency and thereby provide a better quality of service? How often would such references be made...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: Notwithstanding the absence of a statutory remit, surely it is indigenous to what the Mental Health Commission is doing, particularly with regard to identifying the need for community-based services? Is it not necessary for the commission to expand beyond its remit in an inquisitorial role to identify the best and worst of the most serious issues?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Mental Healthcare Sector: Discussion (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: I note what has been said but I emphasise and underline what I have been saying with a view to increased attention in this area.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: I thank the witnesses for coming before us and for their presentations and the information they made available. I have been around the health services for a long time and the system does not seem to change because the issues that have been raised were raised 20 years and they have not changed since then. That is the case in particular with part-time staff, agency staff, short term, part...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: That is true.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: Yes, but they are on the front line.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: I understand what Mr. Bell is saying but to go back to the various drags on the system, they are different. One is capital expenditure and there is a different means of funding that, as those of us who are involved in the health service know, which does not affect the current expenditure at all. I accept that it affects overall borrowing but not current expenditure. I have strong views on...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: We will not agree on the children's hospital. I believe it is an absolute necessity. It should have been built 20 years ago-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: -----or 40 years ago. It was not, however, and therein lies the kernel of the problem. The Waterford mortuary should have been dealt with 12 or 14 years ago, when there was no children's hospital competing with it. That is my point.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: Everybody else got a lot of value out of the reverse side of the coin. I am entitled to my side of it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: No. Mr. Figgis wishes to respond.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2019)
Bernard Durkan: The Vice Chairman will be glad to know that I am nearing a conclusion. To what extent has overall staffing throughout the health services increased in the past year or two years, given that during an bord snip nua's regime it went down dramatically? There have been many staff increases. This goes back to my question as to which area the staff increases have gone to. It is fine to say...