Results 5,761-5,780 of 11,580 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Going back 20 years, I know someone who worked as a junior doctor and who was on-call 136 hours one week and 76 hours the following week. They were on what we call a “one in two” call. They worked every day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and they were on call every second night and every second weekend. There has been a move away from that and there has been some change. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Can I go back to the issue of employment of junior doctors who are on six-month or 12-month contracts? Could we work towards a system? I remember doing a lot of work on this in 2012 or 2013, when I did a report on it. Could we go back to a situation whereby instead of being given a 12-month contract or a six-month contract, a doctor is given a three-year contract, for example, and is able...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Dr. Humphries is suggesting that we go into the issue by employing more consultants, but I hear big arguments from consultants. For instance, I spoke to a consultant who I think works in Galway or in the north west. She came back from the United States, where she had two days of operating time per week. Now she has a half day per week. She tries to get three operations done within her...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: It appears that when we were dealing with the pandemic, hospital doctors took over the management of hospitals, to a large extent. They did a very good job while they were in charge, but that seems to have gone back again. They now seem to have very little say in when they can get a space in theatre and when they can get access to beds. There seems to be a huge clawback on the progress...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Is it not the case that there was positive feedback from the doctors because they were in charge, rather than someone else dictating the terms?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Does Dr. Humphries believe we can do a lot more to get administration and management to work in a far more co-ordinated way to assist doctors? The standard answer seems to be, "I'll come back to you next week about that issue you've raised". Next week goes to next month, and next month goes to next year. That is one of the complaints.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I think we now have over 6,000 NCHDs within the hospital system. What number of those are on training schemes and what numbers are not on any training scheme? Have we any breakdown of that number?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: There are over 2,500 doctors who are moving every six months or every 12 months. That is a huge number. Finally, did the witnesses find in their research that junior doctors face more challenges while they working in smaller hospitals outside of the main centres of population, such as Galway, Limerick, Dublin and Cork?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank Dr. Humphries for her presentation. The first question I want to deal with is recommendations going forward and looking at the long-term. How does she see this changing over the next ten years? Does she believe there is not an appetite for change in the system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I just wanted to ask about the doctors interviewed. Did the delegates not find that doctors working here believe they are doing a lot of work that really should not be under their remit, or that other staff in the hospital should be doing much of the work general doctors in Ireland do by comparison with those in other jurisdictions? As a result of their doing that work, we are overworking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: The one example I have is of a student from the US who qualified as a doctor here. They worked in a smaller hospital initially and got great opportunities to work in theatre and everywhere else. They went to a bigger hospital for the second six months of their first year and found all they were doing was going for this or that, without getting access to many of the areas they wanted to deal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: May I return to the issues of consultants in the hospitals outside the major centres of population? Many of them are on a rotation whereby they work every day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and are on call every third or fourth night and every third or fourth weekend. If you are on call at the weekend, you will have worked for the entire preceding week. You will be on call from 5 p.m. on Friday...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Would Dr. Byrne not agree that a system that requires one to work all week and then go on call from 5 o'clock on a Friday evening right through until 9 o'clock on a Monday morning is not a good one to have in place?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Following on from that, is that not a challenge as to why you cannot even get an applicant for some posts that are advertised, because of the requirement to work one in three weekends or one in four? As a result people are saying they do not want to take on that job, they can get a job where they will have at least five or six weekends off completely, and they might work one in six or one in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation Project: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Some of the areas I am talking about are not very remote. Sligo is not remote in real terms. Neither is Mayo but all of those hospitals, whether it is Letterkenny, Castlebar, all of those have challenges in regard to getting people even to apply for jobs.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments (22 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Will the Minister outline what steps are being taken or are in place to ensure Ukrainian refugees can access the supplementary welfare allowance and child benefit quickly upon their arrival in Ireland? Will she make a statement on the matter?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Care Services (22 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: 10. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will report on the supports for carers to help them to take up training, education or employment while continuing to care for a person. [14840/22]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Care Services (22 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: Will the Minister report on the supports for carers to help them take up training, education or employment while continuing to care for a relative or member of their family?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Care Services (22 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister’s reply. She spoke about the 18.5 hours per week, and because of Covid we have moved to online training and people working from home. Can more facilities be put in place to assist carers? One of the problems carers have is that if the member of the family they are looking after passes away, they then find it difficult to get back into the employment system...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Care Services (22 Mar 2022)

Colm Burke: The Minister will have to accept there is a problem. For instance, I have a constituent who looked after his elderly parents for eight years in total, and when he tried to get back into the workforce, he found there were many areas he was no longer able to work in. He had a health problem and he no longer qualified for any of the benefits because he was means tested for anything he applied...