hospitals protest

chewy

in regard to this

Patients Together: A Public Protest .

We are a group of ordinary people who have come together having
suffered or witnessed the horrendous conditions in A&E Hospital
Departments all around the Country. We find it a shameful and
inhumane way to treat anyone - it cannot continue.

If you too have suffered, please contact us by email
mailto:patientstogether@eircom.net
or phone 085 7302798 (Janete Byrne).

This situation must be highlighted - your story will help!

We will protest on Saturday 13th November at 2pm from Garden of
Rememberance, Parnell Square, Dublin to the Dail Eireann - Please
Join us!!

it reminded me of the protests last year in various counties...,I glanced over articles about it at the time, but couldn't descerne whether people would concerned about the run down of the health services in the country or worried about just their own local hospital... (A&E and cancer units?), apart from antiwar marches and the farmers ),this issues had the largest amount of people out on the streets 20,000? in Laois or somewhere, forgive my ignorance, does anybody else know anyting about it ..

as a "rent a protestor" myself, and someone who would have a bit of interest in these issues it something I couldnt figure out or figure the motivations of the people involved, to get involved myself, or perhaps it was becuase it wasn't a Dublin-based issue...

there was an article in the times the other day how 15 anti-hanley people were going to go for the next general elections or something?

infact heres is something from one of those involved, okay os its on indymedia we didn't try to brain wash her though , I wasn't even goingto mention indymedia till i saw this:)

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67402

chewy

my sister was very sick yesterday, basically she hurt her back, it was so inflamed the physio couldnt work on it, and then she when she hobbled down stairs yesterday she was overcome with serious pain that was making her puke and faint, my mother rang the doctors, (on call) and they said oh they won't be there till ten, it was 8:30 my sister looked like death warmed up, moaning with the pain, so we called an ambulance... turns out it was muscle spasms, and while waiting all day in hospital to be seen and the physio and consultants argueing over her treatment she's ok now on pain relief...

do we have 24 doctors on call these days, I dunno who my mother rang, but they didn't say oh ring this other doctor he'll be out as soon as he can... no wonder people are going to A&E too much...

Cork

chewy wrote:

it cannot continue.

It surely can't but the government cannot continue throwing money at health.

Reform has to be implemented. The Hanley and Brennan reports deserve immediate implementation.

With reform additional resources should be given to radiology departments. There are many other areas in health that deserve much better funding.

In many areas - little additional funding could make massive difference.

chewy

this situation reminded me of the protests against Hanley's pln to close hospital units last year in various counties...,I glanced over articles about it at the time, but couldn't decerne whether people were concerned about the run down of the health services in the country or worried about just their own local hospital... (A&E and cancer units?), apart from antiwar marches and the farmers, this issues had the largest amount of people out on the streets last year...

it dind't seem to be a leftist issue, or maybe it just wasn't a Dublin issue.? And as usual there seemed to alot of polictical manuerving for the local elections too?

anybody know anymore about them.

...from Irish Times Nov 03

...where some 15,000 people marched in protest against the Hanly plan....


Meanwhile, the Ennis Hospital Action Group is to link up with other such groups in an attempt to form a state-wide campaign to resist Hanly.

With a similar protest in defence of Nenagh General Hospital to take place within a fortnight, there are concerns that other Fianna Fáil deputies will break ranks and join those opposing the changes rather than campaign to persuade their constituents that the reforms are worthwhile....

...Following a mass demonstration in Nenagh over the weekend nine hospital action groups have amalgamated in an attempt to force the hand of the Government to draw back from implementing the report....

...The anti-Hanly protest in Nenagh was attended by over 7,000 people, about half the expected crowd....

--
INO marches in protest at Hanly’s plans for Nenagh
http://www.ino.ie/view_categories.php?cat_id=535&doc_id=4052&sCat=535

INO members joined forces with 10,000 others in a recent protest march and massive public rally in Nenagh.

DublinWriter

Cork wrote:

It surely can't but the government cannot continue throwing money at health.

Reform has to be implemented. The Hanley and Brennan reports deserve immediate implementation.

With reform additional resources should be given to radiology departments. There are many other areas in health that deserve much better funding.

In many areas - little additional funding could make massive difference.

Yet again Cork, your FF apologist bullsh*t.

How about those dozen or so reports that Weasail Martin got commissioned during his tenure that cost in the region of €10m that are now just sitting collecting dust on shelves in Leinster House?

The Department of Health employs around 10,000 civil servants - and that's not counting doctors and nurses and others employed locally in hospitals.

You're buying the party-line petty-bourgaise notion that health-care is just a resource black-hole and that it doesn't matter how much money you throw at it.

Wrong. The healthcare sector has *always* been woe-fully underfunded in this country. In the earlier posts I've seen you make on this subject I always see you make the arguement that spending has doubled, trippled, whatevered by FF on Healthcare in the past zillion or so years that they've been in office.

Well bud, what FF are spending on Healthcare now would have been great for 1992 standards, but you *always* fail to take into account:

1) Inflation
2) Rising average age of the population
3) Increase in population

...and as I always say to you when you make the same innane arguement on this, I've doubled/tripled my spend on groceries in the past 10 years, but am I getting more, or even the same amount of goods now?

What Harney can do immediately is transfer 5,000 or so of the existing civil servents into the Department of Justice, and free up at least 3,000 Gardi from desk and admin duties.

bonkey

DublinWriter wrote:

Wrong. The healthcare sector has *always* been woe-fully underfunded in this country. In the earlier posts I've seen you make on this subject I always see you make the arguement that spending has doubled, trippled, whatevered by FF on Healthcare in the past zillion or so years that they've been in office.

Well bud, what FF are spending on Healthcare now would have been great for 1992 standards, but you *always* fail to take into account:

Emm...I think you'll find that Ireland currently pays more per capita on its healtchare than any other EU nation. The problem is *not* currently one of underfunding, nor has it ever been exclusively so. The far larger problem remains (as it always has) that the value for money is absolutely crap....

Interestingly enough, when McCreevy (I think it was him) said a couple of years ago that he wasn't willing to just throw more and more money at the health system in his budget, he[\i] was demonised.

The sooner people realise that this "the government isn't paying enough to healthcare" notion is hopelessly outdated, the sooner things can get better. They most certainly are throwing enough money. The problem is that they did that first, and *then* discovered that it wasn't the solution...and still bicker over whats to be done.

The latest "great plan" is to decrease coverage through limiting what hospitals can do. While it will keep some people happy, I would be skeptical that the end result will end in a significant service improvement for anyone living outside the localities of where the new "centres of excellence".

I don't suppose they're gonna buy a couple of medevac choppers for those who have emergencies far away from one of these centres??? (And no, I'm not being facetious....the rescue-service in Switzerland is used for exactly that purpose that I'm aware of).

jc

CathyMoran

This is a bit of a side topic - my mother did get excellent care in A & E but not the right care:

My mum had a brain haemorrage 9 weeks ago - we were incredibly lucky to get her transferred to Beaumont the following day (which was the only place that could save her life) but there are only about 20 beds in the country for her condition - on the first day we were told that she would die and then we were told that if she went to Beaumont there might be an operation that she could have - we were waiting on a lottery to see if she could get a bed...we were treated excellently by the staff but this care should be more localised. We were luck that her admitting hospital had a CAT scan, admiitidly they only had it a few weeks, otherwise she would have had to wait to be transferred to Beamont or Tallaght for the test and then transferred back, on the basis that the trip to Beaumont almost killed her...have a friend who works in A & E and he has said that the situation is even worse in the regional hospitals. Again, I can't fault the staff, the care was excellent but...

There should be regional centres of excellence in the very least - we saw one girl who was transferred from Donegal who was only 23 - she didn't make it