The health service - most damning report yet

I am emigrating, and the HSE and Irish health care system would be quite high on my list of reasons for doing so. I doubt ireland is capable of fixing it as facing and dealing with uncomfortable facts isn't an Irish thing.

The problems are top to bottom and start with GP's and that whole system which is slow, paper based and stupidly inefficient. The whole mess starts with the education system where the medical profession have been allowed to control the whole mess and have used it to restrict the number of doctors who are educated. My local general practice is so overloaded they don't take on new patients and the turnover of Doctors seems quite high.

In other countries, it's possible for patients to directly access specialists, that isn't the case here, and it's just so inefficient, costly and time wasting.

I remember moving into my current house in 2002, and listening to the news while in the kitchen and hearing about patients on trolleys at Limerick regional. 20 years later and every year in between, it's still the norm. Other countries I can think of wouldn't tollerate that and the governments would have realized a need for greater capacity and would have provided it.

The HSE attitude to the report is typical - sweep it under the caprpet while saying no need to worry, that's all in the past, the problems have been solved, thing aren't like that now. Same sort of nonsense that's characterized how Catholic church attrocities have been dealt with by sweeping them under the carpet.

Absolutely. Ireland has one of the highest expenditures on healthcare in the OECD and the worst outcomes. Everyone knows that a large portion of the money is just a torrent of € going into the pockets of the HSE management layer that is hugely overpopulated and mostly unnecessary, but it's one of those generally known uncomfortable truths Ireland can't mentally deal with or openly and publicly acknowledge .

In Australia they would have been made redundant two decades ago. Here? - not a chance. The government can't get it's head around the civil sector being over financed compared to what is delivered, when compared to the norm in the EU or OECD.

Ireland doesn't do 'consequences'. I will always remember a few years ago a newspaper article about the national childrens hospital mess, where the minister for health said something like 'there needs to be an enquiry into matters, but it's important that a core element be that no individuals are to be identified, reported on or actioned.'

Hopeless - I'm off.

Ireland second-highest OECD health spending, poorest outcomes

I got into a minor Twitter spat sone time ago when I responded to a Tweet that went like this: woman who had attended GP (who didn’t seem to attempt to fix her problem or refer her to a specific outpatient centre) said “if you are uncomfortable go to A&E”. Which she did. She registered in, saw triage nurse, waited 6 hours and left in protest. Seems she got better without further attention toon. But the Tweet was protesting at the fact she was sent a bill for attending, and wasn’t seen to before she got fed up. I replied that A&E is for people who are really too unwell to be able to walk out at their convenience.

A male tweeter retorted in this fashion: “ very unfair of you to say that, I have to fit in my A&E visits between collecting children from school”. Again I countered that he should be attending his GP for stuff that can be slotted into a time frame if his convenience and that attending A&E in that fashion, taking up space and walking out because you have done where else to go, really is not appropriate and part of the problem of A&E overcrowding.

There’s a certain “illness culture”, more particularly among women (I am a woman btw, I’ll get my coat now 😂) that is of the belief that if you imagined you were sick enough to attend hospital then you must be taken very seriously. In some people’s minds it’s an “upgrade” in how others will view the importance of your suffering.

An example from some time back. Somebody I worked with was telling me about her daughter’s visit to A&E. I expressed due concern and hoped she was ok etc, and asked what was the matter. She had diarrhoea after eating something that was out of date. Now most people will stay at home beside their bathroom, take dioralyte, or Imodium from the medicine drawer or nearest pharmacy, stop eating for a bit or take light food.

There was no blood loss or extraordinary pain in her case. Just an unpleasant episode. I diplomatically enquired why she might not have taken care of it at home, the reply was that she “would surely need a drip”. Instead this extremely fit & healthy twenty something year old girl brings what could have been highly contagious Norovirus into a hospital of much sicker people who are undergoing surgeries etc and could be doing without that added misery.

Anne O Connor asked that this report not be released but shortly after it was it followed by an announcement she's heading off to the VHI to become Managing Director.

Paul Reid spoke of her wonderfulness generally and offerred a glowing analysis of her time in the Health sector.

Former Director of Mental Health 🙄

National Director of Community Based Health & Care 🙄

I'll leave others to decide how those assignments went.

Anne Led the Spin operation throughout the Pandemic very efficiently, one wonders who Paul Reid will have holding him up after she leaves.

Only in Ireland is Abject failure rewarded so handsomely

Well if I need a GP appointment, I will typically be waiting 6-15 days for an appointment, they don't open weekends, close for 2.5 hours for lunch...

That's were the issue lies, also many GP's and primary care facilities use Covid19 to reduce access to services from my experience

That only proves my point that throwing more money at the HSE and hospitals isn't the solution.

Developing community care and reducing the numbers of nurses in hospitals is a better solution.

It is not just the senior management team, the culture of non-performance goes right through the organisation down to the bottom, with the first-line and middle managers probably the worst of all.

I absolutely agree with Middle management a serious problem . They seem to be incapable or more likely unable to make day to day decisions.

I’d like to see reports done regarding a&e attendances whereby we find out what percentage of people turning up, quite simply don’t need to be there…I doubt the HSE would be forthcoming with that info, there’d be war…

It is in the report, 75% of those who turned up at A&E didn't need to be there. No wonder they are under pressure.