Results 6,721-6,740 of 11,299 for speaker:Colm Burke

Written Answers — Department of Health: General Practitioner Services (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: 255. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to increase direct access to echocardiography for general practitioners through community-based ambulatory care hubs, given 80% of private hospitals provide GP direct access yet only 19% of public hospitals do the same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47459/22]

Financial Resolutions 2022 - Financial Resolution No. 6: General (Resumed) (29 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank the Ministers for being here this evening for this debate on the budget. I welcome the fact that there is now over €23 billion being set aside in the health budget for 2023. It is extremely important that we continue to grow and develop our healthcare services and that we try to identify the areas where additional funding is required. We have done this in the budget, in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for attending and for their presentations and the work they are doing in delivering health services. On the development of healthcare in the community, I want to give an example of where it is not working. I have a case of a 79-year-old who was in hospital with Covid for three months. He lives on his own and has impaired vision. Six weeks after coming out of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Would Mr. Reid not accept that six weeks after coming out of hospital there was no call, and this person is residing not that far from a HSE headquarters?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Can we move on to backup support within GP practices? Has there been any discussion on that issue because, in fairness, GPs are at the coalface and are meeting people every day. Given the volume of work that they now have without any additional support, what engagement will there be with the IMO on that issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Does that support include the employment of nursing staff?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: What kind of timescale are we talking about? One must remember that we have a huge number of GPs retiring in the next five years so we have a challenge from that point of view as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Concerning workforce planning, one of the issues I have raised previously relates to people leaving the HSE and the hospital system and exit surveys. Have they been comprehensively introduced in every hospital at this stage to establish the reasons staff are leaving? In some cases, staff have difficulties with the management structure in a particular unit of the hospital, and there are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Mr. Reid mentioned Mr. O'Dwyer from the South/Southwest Hospital Group. I have to raise the issue of elective hospitals. To retain staff and get a service delivered effectively, elective hospitals are needed. What is the status of the decision on Cork? The submission was made in January to the Department. Here we are almost ten months later and we still do not have a decision on where...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: I think I heard that last April as well that we were almost there. We are now ten months later.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: What is the timeframe Mr. Watt is setting on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Does Mr. Watt accept that we have a problem in the south and south west area? The population of Cork has increased by more than 170,000 over the past 20 years. No additional beds were created in that particular period. Like every other part of the country, we have an ageing population and, therefore, there will be a need for access to hospital services.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: To go back to the issue of community care, no matter what kind of community care the HSE can provide, it will not be adequate and a certain number of people will have to be admitted into nursing homes for the care they require. There is a significant gap between what it costs per bed in private and public nursing homes. The latter is, on average, €1,650 per bed per week, while the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: What of the issue of the nursing homes?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Would Mr. Watt agree that this decision will have to be taken fast, and not in six months' time? The challenges are there now with the increased costs.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Health Service Executive - Financial Statements 2021 (29 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank Mr. Reid and all of his HSE colleagues for being here today. It has been a very challenging time over the last two and a half years in dealing with Covid. Today my focus is on mental health services and in particular, on services in my own area which is the Cork-Kerry region. I have been looking at data on population changes in that area over the last six years. The population is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Health Service Executive - Financial Statements 2021 (29 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: Are these to primarily deal with mental health?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Health Service Executive - Financial Statements 2021 (29 Sep 2022)

Colm Burke: If one looks at the reports on mental health facilities, we are running into difficulties. I say this because they are no longer deemed suitable for the number of people in them. We have had to reduce the number of people in many of those facilities.