Hospital's Making People Worse

idlesupernova

Iv seen the state of a Psych ward in Cork, totally disgusting, I was baffled at how people could get well there, I learned that a patient would see a doctor for a sit down once a week, then usually see a junior every two days. Is this right? As for the look of the place, sickening. Is this the done thing in public hospitals?

snorlax

this is not the right forum.

N8

yeah nevermind whether its the truth or not we only want to hear how great the system is (unless of course we complain) and how great we are

tallaght01

Public hospitals are pretty dirty.
It's a shame. It wasn't always the way. Each ward used to have it's own cleaner, or a cleaner between 2 or 3 wards. If there was a spillage, or if the place was dirty, it would get sorted pretty soon. Now cleaning work is contracted out to companies. They will employ as few cleaners as possible. The hospital managers like this, as it's cheaper, and the company likes this, as there's more room for profit.

Sadly, this is the way it's going to be in a world where resources are in great demand. There's outrage if waiting times aren't met. There's outrage if you wait in A+E for too long. People get annoyed if they aren't provided with the most up to date drugs for their condition.

Quite rightly, too.

In this environment, where scans cost thousands, and drug costs are soaring, there will be cutbacks.

It's not just in Ireland, and it's not just in terms of cleanliness. I've often done the job of other people who've left the hospital, when it was decided not to replace them, for example. But you just do it, and you plough on. It's a big brick wall. Maybe it will get better someday.

But the fundamental problem remains....we want an excellent health service. We don't want to pay much more taxes. New drugs are hugely expensive. New diagnostic tests are hugely expensive. Salaries are going up. People are living longer, and have more diseases of old age.

It's going to be difficult to deal with this without significant extra resources.

As for the bit about only seeing the consultant once or twice a week...that too is normal. A "junior" doctor is anything below consultant. There's usually a registrar kicking about, who's only a few years away from being a consultant. They can handle most of the day to day issues. Unfortunately, ward work is only one of a multitude of demands placed on consultants' time.

Dr Galen

don't forget that in this country we're playing catchup for years of under investment in the health system. we also seem to lack any real and coherent management or leadership in hospitals or health in general. joined up thinking etc go out the window in the public sector and money gets wasted.

we did vote these fools back in too ya know