Results 3,841-3,860 of 11,187 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I have come across people who have been in training for as long as nine years and decided the stress levels in the hospitals, and the demands made on them in the hospitals are forcing them out. They have they decided that life is short enough and that going down the road of GP training is the best road for them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I accept that. The areas I am talking about are probably the areas that have high litigation levels such as in obstetrics and gynaecology. These are the areas where people are finding it extremely stressful to work. The other is in orthopaedics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Reference was made to doubling the nurses working in GP practices. If we decide to double the numbers of nurses in GP practices, it must be noted there is a challenge at the moment in getting nurses. It is obviously something I am very much in favour of because there is a lot of work that GPs are doing that nurses are really well trained to do. The problem is that we may end up taking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: How do we increase the number of training places for nurses to deal with this new demand? If the Department decided in the morning that an additional 2,000 nurses were to be recruited for GP practices, how would that demand be met?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: One of the other challenges arising in the medical service is that, because very large companies in Ireland are receiving non-stop complaints from their employees that they cannot get access to GPs, private companies are now taking on GPs in a full-time capacity. Does the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, see that as another challenge we are going to face over the next two to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I am talking about big companies like the IT companies, the medical devices companies and the pharmaceutical companies physically employing a GP to look after their employees. Does the ICGP see that as a growing trend because of the problems those companies are having in holding onto staff? This is an additional plus they can offer staff.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: What is the ICGP's view on the timescale? In what kind of timescale would it like to see the task force reporting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Has the task force formally been set up at this stage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Is there someone within the Department who has taken on responsibility for-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: -----the connection with all of the organisations involved, including the Irish Medical Organisation and the ICGP? Has there been discussion with them to ensure the terms of reference can be signed off on by, for example, the end of January?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Does Mr. Foy believe we can actually get this signed off by the end of January? If it is not signed off on by all of the organisations by the end of January, it is going to drag into February and then into March. I am a bit concerned about the time it takes Departments to set up reviews and then to get them working.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: The committee should write to the Minister and ask that timelines be set out for the review to be signed off on, established and got up and running and functioning.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: The ICGP report published in October referred to the Scottish system in relation to medical students. We do not have a system here in Ireland where medical students work within GP practice for a period. They attend clinics in hospitals but I understand they are not in GP practices while they are going to college. Am I correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Has the college engaged with the universities?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Does it believe it would be of assistance in trying to get more of those graduating into the GP system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: If that were put in place and an agreement reached on it, then the question would be the number of GP practices that would be prepared to come on board to facilitate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Would that be a challenge?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: In the past six years in Ireland, the number of people working in the hospital system has increased from 103,000 to more than 137,000 whole-time equivalents. That is an increase of over 33%. That has been achieved in a six-year time period. Can we reach the targets the ICGP is talking about on the basis it gets support from the Department of Health and the HSE right across the board?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: That was my argument because, in real terms, we would be producing more doctors. If I borrow €100,000 to set up a business in the morning, I can write that €100,000 off against tax, but if I borrow €100,000 to go to college and I am providing a service when I qualify, and it is an essential service, I cannot write it off against tax.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Recruitment, Retention and Manpower Planning Issues: Irish College of General Practitioners (14 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Another problem for those students is that all the financial institutions are refusing to provide loans for those students, as I understand it. There is now a difficulty in their getting loans.