Results 6,421-6,440 of 11,195 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: I raised an issue about people who are admitted to a nursing home and for whom a weekly fee is agreed and who then need additional support, for example, 12 months later. Are we looking to vary that scheme in any way?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: What is the timescale for when that is likely to be introduced?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Is Ms O'Connor talking about towards the end of the year or earlier?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: An issue was raised in the statement. It is about internal control, on page 122, and relates to payroll fraud. I presume that matter is being dealt with by the Garda. What amount is involved? When did this occur?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: More than 2,000 organisations are allocated over €5.4 billion. It is a significant task to have checks and balances on every one of them. I presume all of the organisations have the appropriate procedures in place. When the HSE does an audit, is it satisfied that enough safety precautions are in place to deal with something like this?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Going back to the service level agreements and the SouthDoc issue, where there is an agreement in place and the agency is not delivering on its side of the agreement, is there a provision for penalties being imposed for such a breach? That does not appear to have occurred with SouthDoc.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Two centres were closed down.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: I agree with that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Access to two major centres was no longer available to people.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Is it not the case that where a centre is closed down and a hospital is closer than a centre, which may be three or four miles away, people will tend to go into the hospital and, as a result, additional people who should be going to a GP out-of-hours service end up in accident and emergency?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: I accept that. When people are aware that a centre is closed, they will feel there is no point in ringing SouthDoc and will decide to go to the hospital, such as the emergency department in Mercy University Hospital or Cork University Hospital, rather than going all the way out to the Kinsale Road. That is what tended to happen.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: It might be interesting to look at how many people turned up to emergency departments who could have gone to a general practitioner's surgery.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank Mr. Reid and all the people in the HSE for their work over the last 18 months. It has been a very difficult time for everyone. I want to touch on the last issue Mr. Reid dealt with. With regard to the funding for SouthDoc, I note from my notes that in 2019 the funding for SouthDoc was €8.3 million, my figure for 2020 was €12.3 million and for 2021 it is €7.5...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: It sounds like a huge increase, in particular when facilities were closed. Another issue is in regard to facilities that closed. For instance, Blackpool, which is on the north side of Cork city, was closed down. With regard to access to the facilities on the south side, there is no public transport, so a facility was closed down that people on the north side of the city and the rural area...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: I know that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Could we have a reason for the substantial increase in funding and how that funding was allocated during that period? Those are the figures I have. I know the witnesses may not be able to give that to me now but they might give it to me subsequently in writing. I want to move on to deal with the issue in regard to the value for money report in regard to nursing homes. We have been...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: The question I am asking is what additional funding was then provided to the public nursing homes at the same time and what additional supports had to be put in place.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: What is the difficulty with the value for money report? This has been going on for over three years and costs have increased in the meantime. There are complaints from the private nursing homes about having difficulty retaining staff, but part of the problem is funding. The other issue with funding is this. When people go into a private nursing home, they are assessed as regards the level...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: In fairness, it was to be published in quarter 2 of this year. We are now into quarter 3 and we will soon be into quarter 4. Is it going to be published by the end of quarter 3?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE (Resumed) (23 Sep 2021)

Colm Burke: Can the Department respond to the Committee of Public Accounts setting out a guide as to when is likely to be published?