Results 7,561-7,580 of 11,301 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: What if an assault takes place in a hospital and someone is actually hurt? In this case, I am referring to a situation where a nurse was held in a headlock and there was no Garda prosecution. Surely, there is something wrong with the system. In fairness to that person, if she files a statement with the health authority or HSE, is the HSE as the employer not obliged to make sure there is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Okay, then let us move it on another bit. Every two or three months, we have a joint policing committee meeting between the local authority, the Garda and local public representatives. Is it not now time for the unions together with the HSE and Garda to have joint meetings in a similar way?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: It could be taken to a national level. The unions together with the HSE and the Garda authorities need to sit around the table and see what processes can be put in place. Given that we have the same structure with local authorities, which was only set up in the last ten years, why can we not do the same to protect front-line workers in the HSE? Is it not about time we did something like that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Has the INMO made a request to the Department, the HSE or the Garda to consider putting in place a mechanism?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: I worry that when one-off meetings are held and organisations like those present today appear before the committee, we do not hear about it again for another 12 months. I suggest we set up a structure in the same way that we have done with local authorities, which has been extremely helpful in local communities. Likewise, with such a structure there would not necessarily need to be a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: We might ask the Health and Safety Authority to join those meetings as well in order that we cover all the angles. It is something for which we should all be looking. As a committee, perhaps we should also write to the Garda authorities on that issue as part of the outcome of this. The second issue I wish to touch on-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: One way of dealing with this is to make sure all people are singing from one hymn sheet as regards how we deal with it and how we will reduce the level of both verbal and physical abuse of hospital staff.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Perhaps it is time we started to look for them to be collated to deal with this issue. These people are providing a level of care for the general public. They are doing their best to deliver a service in the best possible way and they are being hindered from doing so. As people said earlier, it is devastating for someone to go home from work having been assaulted the night or day before...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Welfare and Safety of Workers and Patients in Public Health Service: Discussion (8 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Are the agreed terms being implemented right across the board? Do we still have some facilities where doctors are required to work much longer hours than what has been agreed?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Correct.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: I thank everyone present for making themselves available for dealing with this issue. First, I will make a declaration that I was wearing a different cap in 2004, in that I acted in a legal capacity against both the health boards and the Department of Health. It is important I declare that in respect of these nursing home claims. As I said to the Chair in a private meeting last week, I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: It is one of the issues that is happening, where the Department seems to have a particular problem making decisions on issues until such time as there is a challenge and then we are all on deck trying to resolve the issue. Likewise, on the issues relating to the private nursing home cases, none of them were actually dealt with other than that they were settled. There was not an overall...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Yes. Are there other areas the committee should know which are within-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: -----the Department's knowledge where there are delays? This was 18 years ago. The nursing homes issue was going on long before 2004, long before the applications to the High Court were made and yet it took the challenge to the High Court to start the process about the Bill and about putting in place the repayment of the public nursing home charges.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: The issue arises where the Department seems consistently to delay arriving at decisions, which then costs the State. I put it to Mr. Watt that surely a process must be put in place that can expedite the decision-making within the Department rather than the way it is now dealing with particular issues. This is one case in particular where there was a huge delay in dealing with the issue, and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: It did not deal with any of the issues in 2006. It dealt only with the public nursing homes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: It did not deal with the issue where the person who had a medical card looked for a public bed in a public nursing home but ended up in a private nursing home. It did not deal with that issue. The Department was aware there were still ongoing cases against the Department and it did not deal with that issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: In relation to particular issues arising in the Department, why does it take so long? Surely there must be some co-ordination where there is a risk to the Department and to the HSE? The decision-making process seems to drag on ad infinitumand it ends up with the State having to pay out substantial sums of money rather than actually dealing with the issue. It is my understanding the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Yes. Public nursing homes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Chapter 12 - Financial Impact of Cyber Security Attack (9 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: The question I am still asking is why does it still take so much time-----