Results 1,161-1,180 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I wish to come back to the cost of drugs. In the entire period 2000-10, when the cost of drugs increased by more than 230% to 240%, no one flagged this increase, not the medical profession, nor the Department or politicians. Everyone gave the impression that this could continue forever. We are now trying to back-track on it. We have to work on this area. On the discussion about the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: The 10% figure would correspond to a reduction of 190,000 medical cards. That has not occurred.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: Let us be clear on this matter. The figure of 10% corresponds to 190,000 medical cards. It is not the case that 10% of medical cards have been withdrawn.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I ask Dr. Duffy to stop circulating incorrect information. As of 1 March 2014, there were 1,951,000 medical cards. It is totally inaccurate and untrue to claim that 10% of medical cards have been withdrawn. Dr. Duffy should stop alarming people unnecessarily.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: It is important to ensure members of the public are not fed incorrect information. It was alleged that 10% of medical cards had been withdrawn. This figure is incorrect. As of 1 March, 1,951,000 medical cards were in place and the number has increased by 12.5% since January 2011.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I will provide clarification. The joint committee received figures showing that approximately 1,733,000 cards were in place on 1 January 2011 and as of 1 March 2014, this figure had increased to 1,951,000. These are accurate figures. In case there is any dispute, I fully accept that general practitioners have done a major job, far beyond the call of duty, in assisting people who seek to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: It is a very important point. This should have been done.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: At the meeting with the PCRS, we also asked that every person who submits an application for a medical card be given the right to designate a person to whom correspondence would be copied. This is especially necessary for elderly people.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Help us to Help More Campaign: Irish Medical Organisation (27 May 2014)

Colm Burke: Another problem that arises is when comprehensive medical reports are submitted to the PCRS and it subsequently asks general practitioners to fill out additional forms. This practice is totally unfair on doctors who have enough to do.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome the suggestion by the leader of the Opposition regarding the medical cards issue. The review of medical cards is unnecessary and I have made my view clear on this matter. Such a review gives a very false and misleading impression. As recently as yesterday evening at the Joint Committee on Health, representatives from one organisation alleged that the number of medical cards was...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I am concerned that Fianna Fáil has such a strong-----

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: -----opinion when there was-----

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I did not interrupt the Senator.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: There was no one there from Fianna Fáil. A number of very constructive proposals were raised at that meeting and these will help the situation. One of the proposals is that elderly people can nominate a designated person to correspond with the HSE on the review of medical cards.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I mean a member of the family. I ask the Leader for a debate on the review of medical cards. We need to change the current system to ensure that unnecessary alarm is avoided. The current review is causing unnecessary alarm.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: It was not a back-slapping exercise. It was constructive. Senator MacSharry was not there.

Seanad: Maternity Services: Motion (28 May 2014)

Colm Burke: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That Seanad Éireann -" and substitute the following:“noting - - that the draft report on reconfiguration of maternity services in the West/North-West Hospital Group has no status other than that it may help inform the development of the national maternity strategy; - that no decisions on maternity service reconfiguration will be...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 May 2014)

Colm Burke: Yesterday, the Minister for Health clarified the position on the review of maternity services in the west. I remind my colleagues across the floor of the House that in 2003 the then Government produced a report stating that by 2009 there would be 179 consultants in obstetrics and gynaecology.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 May 2014)

Colm Burke: The Members opposite did absolutely nothing when there was plenty of money coming in to the Revenue Commissioners and the Exchequer. By 2010, there were 125 obstetrician consultants, 60 short of what Fianna Fáil set out in its 2003 target. Will Fianna Fáil Members please stop giving out false information?

Seanad: Order of Business (29 May 2014)

Colm Burke: Being involved in the legal profession, for anyone to produce a draft report like the one in question, I actually believe they have no knowledge of what is going on in the maternity services. It is a disgrace that someone drafted such a report without knowing what is going on in maternity services. I am referring particularly to litigation in the maternity services which is an area that...