Dr. Leo Varadkar rejoins the health service

Snow Garden

One day a week manning the phones. Will Leo have a TV camera with him for this publicity stunt?

Maybe he can diagnose if Alan Farrell was really injured when he made that dodgy insurance claim.

Rosita

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

To show how illogical your argument is that means he can do nothing because ANYTHING he does is a PR stunt.

He can be Taoiseach and concentrate all his resources on that. That would hardly qualify as a PR stunt.

solidasarock

Good for him.

I would hope it at least sends a signal to other politicians to do their part, however small.

They can help out in their local social welfare offices like their civil servants are being asked to do for example.

growleaves

I would hope it at least sends a signal to other politicians to do their part, however small.

They can help out in their local social welfare offices like their civil servants are being asked to do for example.

When you go to sign on the dole you'll have some FG Minister frowning at you as they hand over the forms. Surreal.

brennarr

Would rather what Leo is doing.....

Whelo79

He's answering the phones? Are they looking for more people to do that? I'm not medically qualified but hold an MSc quaification.

If I was allowed I would no problem, and i would be neither looking for or expecting a pat on the back for ding it. Surely a script of questions to ask and steps to take dependent on the callers answer is all it takes??

Darc19

Let's look at two countries that are next to each other.

1. UK, led by bumbling boris who didn't take this seriously, shook hands with Covid-19 patients for photo op, didn't practice distancing at his nightly bumbles.
Now is in hospital after being mostly out of action for the past 10 days after contracting Coronavirus

2. Ireland. Currently led by a qualified medic who listened to and took all the advice of medical experts and is stepping up to the plate, even if it is just to show he is mucking in.


Who would you like as a leader?

JP Liz V1

Good on Leo

rdwight

Only way for SF to respond is for some of their leaders to volunteer back at their old jobs.

Mary Lou could do a day a week as a consultant for the Irish Productivity Centre...if it hadn't closed its doors due to "unsustainable losses"

Pearse Doherty could go back to being a civil engineer, er, civil engineering technician or was it navvy (?)
Nothing wrong with the latter two trades if he hadn't inaccurately been represented as being of the first profession.

In the apparent absence of experience of a real job, Eoin O'Broin could go back to being National Organiser of Ogra Sinn Fein.

And Dessie Elllis could go back to...let's not go there.

slavetothegrind

Ah for fecks sake will you lot cop on.
It's a serious situation and we need doctors badly.
If he relieves one frontline medic for 8 hours every week great! I can't do that, can you?
Put your politics and prejudice aside and support your country as many have from all partys
I didn't vote for Leo but i sure am glad he is doing what he can now.

Bleating on about your incredible hindsight or forward vision is bull**** as you were never under the cosh to decide.
If you really believe that FG is making hay here and that's all they are about well then you are right and we are fouked or just maybe they are doing their best for their families and ours.

aido79

There really is some bitter begrudgers in this country.

Baseball72

Doc Martin first, then rotates to Dr Leo.....seems fair to me

anewme

statesaver wrote: »

Never waste a good PR opportunity, well played FG, well played.

It's the OP who is exploiting PR for thanks, not Leo.

The Bishop Basher

The levels of gullibility around this issue are difficult to fathom.

We need Leo to be a Taoiseach right now, not manning a phone line.

The optics of this were obviously to good to pass up for Leo’s PR team and it appears to have worked given many of the responses on here but I don’t understand how the leader of our country can give up 1 full working day every week to man a phone line, while were in the middle of a national and global crisis.

The only way it makes sense is if it’s just a PR stunt.

Snow Garden

The Bishop Basher wrote: »

The levels of gullibility around this issue are difficult to fathom.

FG have always patronised the electorate in a childlike way and many of them fell for it. They wont be able to see through this stunt.

slavetothegrind

The Bishop Basher wrote: »

The only way it makes sense is if it’s just a PR stunt.

Or if we have a national shortage of doctors. We are crying out for them, lots of politicians around.

s1ippy

slavetothegrind wrote: »

Ah for fecks sake will you lot cop on.
It's a serious situation and we need doctors badly.
If he relieves one frontline medic for 8 hours every week great! I can't do that, can you?
Put your politics and prejudice aside and support your country as many have from all partys
I didn't vote for Leo but i sure am glad he is doing what he can now.

Bleating on about your incredible hindsight or forward vision is bull**** as you were never under the cosh to decide.
If you really believe that FG is making hay here and that's all they are about well then you are right and we are fouked or just maybe they are doing their best for their families and ours.

He's going to be doing contract tracing, it says it in every article.

Darc19

rdwight wrote: »

And Dessie Elllis could go back to...let's not go there.

Don't want to be morbid, but there is a high demand for graves to be dug.

theoneeyedman

The Bishop Basher wrote: »

The levels of gullibility around this issue are difficult to fathom.

We need Leo to be a Taoiseach right now, not manning a phone line.

The optics of this were obviously to good to pass up for Leo’s PR team and it appears to have worked given many of the responses on here but I don’t understand how the leader of our country can give up 1 full working day every week to man a phone line, while were in the middle of a national and global crisis.

The only way it makes sense is if it’s just a PR stunt.

This.
PR Stunt.
End of thread.

Snow Garden

The Bishop Basher wrote: »

The levels of gullibility around this issue are difficult to fathom.

https://www.thejournal.ie/trolley-scandal-hse-how-they-do-it-massaging-3177983-Jan2017/

Senior hospital staff have said that patients in some of Ireland’s 52 hospitals are being moved to different wards at specific times of the day so they can avoid the INMO’s Trolley Watch figures, which are published daily, making it appear that hospitals are dealing better with the overcrowding crisis than they are.

Some patients, according to frontline workers, are brought for scans and other diagnostic tests during the time where INMO nurses would usually conduct the count.

TheJournal.ie can also reveal that late last year when Health Minister Simon Harris was visiting the new endscopy unit at Cork University Hospital, a number of patients were moved from trolleys into the theatre recovery room.

“This was done to give the impression that there was nobody on trolleys. They were moved like jigsaw pieces”, one member of staff at CUH told TheJournal.ie.

A similar incident is alleged to have happened during Leo Varadkar’s tenure as Health Minister. This time the accusations concerned Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Louth.

Staff said patients were moved into a new modular unit, which was being unveiled by the then Minister in reaction to the overcrowding crisis at the hospital.

major bill

No fan of Leo but he has shown better leadership skills in dealing with Covid-19 than that other eejet across the water and I think the countries quick reaction in implementing measure to stop the spread of this virus will save lives! This may well be a PR stunt and I’d prefer if media didn’t say he was “front line” as he will be answering phones once a week but **** it I say Fairplay! Nobody has to vote for Fine Gael when this all ends but think he has done a decent job in all of this!

Kermit.de.frog

aido79 wrote: »

There really is some bitter begrudgers in this country.

Nail on the head

Snow Garden

I know for a fact that this happened. What did Leo do?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/hospital-denies-hiding-patients-on-trolleys-for-taoiseach-s-visit-1.3463702

Saolta University Health Care Group has denied that patients on trolleys in University Hospital Galway’s emergency department were “hidden” for the visit of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week.

According to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), there were 42 patients on trolleys on Tuesday, 58 on Wednesday, but just 26 on Thursday for Mr Varadkar’s visit. The figure rose again to 36 on Friday.

Independent TD Catherine Connolly, who was at the hospital on Thursday, said it was “a miracle” that the numbers dropped for Mr Varadkar’s visit.

“I walked through the hospital on Thursday, and I noticed that it was quiet,” she told RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. “I got calls then afterwards, to tell me that it was all a pretence, that there were patients there but that they had been hidden.

To be fair this happened when Cowen was Taoiseach too. But it is always ignored.

Larbre34

I don't begrudge it to him. I admire any person signing up to apply their professional skills in this effort.

I do however think that *nothing* should distract from running the Country at this point or from forming a committed new Government with the strong potential to last the next 5 years.

When Leo Varadkar is no longer Acting Head of Government of this State, and presuming he doesn't get a new cabinet position that precludes it, then he can do what he likes and I'll wish him well doing it.

Kermit.de.frog

The shinner bots are out this evening.

touts

He qualified as a GP two years after he was elected to the Dail and never actually practiced. At least one of the jobs wasn't being done properly. After 10+ years in politics I doubt his skill set has gotten any better. At this point his medical qualifications are one step removed from an honorary doctorate. No way I would want to be treated by him.

He is the leader of the country. Generals don't fight in the Frontline anymore neither should he. Maybe he should sit in on the next call with the Chinese PPE supplier rather than posing for the inevitable photo op of him wearing the stuff.

s1ippy

Whelo79 wrote: »

He's answering the phones? Are they looking for more people to do that? I'm not medically qualified but hold an MSc quaification.

If I was allowed I would no problem, and i would be neither looking for or expecting a pat on the back for ding it. Surely a script of questions to ask and steps to take dependent on the callers answer is all it takes??

Yep, that's the long and short of it. There are plenty contact tracers as many other employees in the HSE have been redeployed. Incredibly poor use of time as far as the caretaker Taoiseach is concerned. Doesn't even have a mandate and he's double-jobbing.

And no, I don't have a solution but neither apparently does the glorious leader of some of you and he's the one with the power to enact change. How he'll do that while speaking to individuals on the phone about their contract with confirmed cases, your guess is as good as mine. But if he thinks that's the best use of his time would he not just eff off and let somebody else do the job of leading the country. I actually don't give a sh!t who at this stage.

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The shinner bots are out this evening.

If that old chestnut is your only recourse, you'll never change your tune. It's the most transparent PR crap I've ever seen. I don't have any preference for Sinn Féin. In fact, right now I'm erring just becoming fully anarchist and ignoring the pillars of society from the comfort of my home until this blows over and then starting to negotiate with whoever is left in society. I'm bunkered down for the long haul.

Enjoy watching your party suffocate and die like all the people they've condemned to a similar fate, drowning on their own sputum on a cot in the corner of the absolutely teeming hospital.

Why anyone would keep beating that drum you have is a complete mystery to me. Normally I don't directly respond to people who spout the "Shinnerbot" nonsense but I thought you were a rational enough person because of your impressively early contributions to the original Covid threads. I'm flabbergasted that you support this rubbish.

smurgen

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Nail on the head

After liking a post taking the piss out of SF TD’s I think you lose the right to winge about begrudger and politicising this. Well done on retaining the moral high ground for approximately 2 hours.

Kermit.de.frog

smurgen wrote: »

After liking a post taking the piss out of SF TD’s I think you lose the right to winge about begrudger and politicising this. Well done on retaining the moral high ground for approximately 2 hours.

Could you imagine the disaster we would be in if SF were in govt?

It does not bare thinking about.

anewme

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The shinner bots are out this evening.

The OP sums up why people dont trust FG though. It's very much do as I say not as I do. If he is FG supporter, it does not give much credibility.

Someone who had to be physically stopped going to Northetn Italy, but going to Cheltenham and probably infecting half the Country, he is a poor poster boy.