The current hospital / A&E crisis

I don't think they should be let off the hook this time round. The health service for all the money pumped into has been an absolute **** show for 20 years plus now.

Its not washing with me at all and I don't know how we are not on the streets over it. Far too apathetic as a nation! People are dying unnecessarily.

The current crisis has people (over 900 ) waiting on trolleys who need tube admitted ie . to a bed in a ward for inpatient treatment .

It is not about people waiting in A+E to be seen for a simple ailment.

I say this with all due respect to the above posters because in normal times I would agree wholeheartedly with your comments about GP access and people attending A+E for non urgent problems .

However the thread is about " the current " crisis .

Some GP practices have 10,000 patients on their lists and they are closed.

Some pregnant women are having their entire ante-natal care delivered at the Emergency Department or by CareDocs, because they cannot get onto those lists.

Older people suffering serious illness these last few weeks; dehydration from severe norovirus, temporary unconciousness from suspected heart or neuro problems, suspected pneumonia after weeks of enduring Covid and Flu, and RSV and bacterial infections - they are being triaged for Ambulance service over the phone and being told that they are 40th in line and having to wait 6+ hours.

Its the same with kids suffering dangerously high and persistent fevers from Covid and Flu - from which they aren't vaccinated. Their parents are worried sick about signs of meningitis, so sick are they - and yet they can't get an ambulance or even a housecall either.

This is not the ****ing fault of patients. There is *NO* culture of people turning up at hospital demanding tertiary treatment. Anyone that is turning up, is either seriously ill, or CANNOT ACCESS BASIC HEALTHCARE ANY BLOODY PLACE ELSE!!!

Stephen Donnelly is talking diarrheoa as per usual. His lips are moving and his hands are gesticulating, but he's not actually doing anything.

An Emergency response would be setting up Defence Forces assisted triage outside the busiest hospitals, to clear the EDs and give medics space to work, do tests and provide dignity.

An Emergency response would put all Consultants and Clinical Nurse Managers and every other qualified practicioner or tester or therapist on a 12 hr on/off rotation, to join nurses and NCHDs in actually diagnosing, treating, medicating and either admitting or discharging patients on a constant 24/7 basis, not just from 9-5.

An Emergency response would be to commandeer the private hospitals again, to act as sanitoria and isolate the Covid and Flu patients that are high dependent, but not intensive care candidates.

Donnelly is a useless shytebag and so is every Minister and Senior Official, who should be enacting a War plan here, not giving pressers telling people its THEIR fault and warning everyone else that they shouldn't get ****ing sick!!!

Sorry in my experience ,your wrong nobody is in a hospital bed because they are too sick to go home ,

I've had several procedures that meant I was in hospital for just under 20 days this year alone , I've met people who were kept in waiting for over a week to have tests done only to be sent home with a referral kept in for a week waiting on tests ,I also came across elderly persons in hospital beds for week's at a time because there was no other facilities for them outside of the hospital,

Others in A&E going live in social media chats asking followers to contact their local TDs to contact the hospital to get them bed because they have a sore throat,

The system well and truly Faqued both by the management of the overall system to people's unrealistic expectations when they rock uo to A&e with relatively minor issues that should be dealt with at Gp level,

Can't access gp service run to a&e this is the one of the biggest problems ,why are gps over whelmed too many retirements and no replacements and expanding free schemes for some people, leaving those who need to see a gp but get told you have to wait 2-3 week's for a phone consult which will still cost €65 but for that 3/4 minutes on the phone to the gp guess what he's referring you to a&e oh that's another € 100 and whatever days off work while you wait 19+ hours in a&e just to see a Dr .

It's all bloody related to beds and trolleys

The population has grown and continues to grow exponentially. Between 85,000-95,000 in a matter of months, conservative estimates as the state all of a sudden isn’t updating their CSO site unless I’ve missed it 😏

the state can’t train, qualify and pay for the hiring of additional a&e doctors, nurses, plus…security, admin staff, etc to cope with that sudden extra demand, system was barely coping with the pre Ukranian demand….so that’s what happens. A crisis…

I suspect a good deal of beds in wards are being held by elderly, who are not sick anymore, but too weak to be discharged.

Care/nursing homes have no spaces, or are closed due to using same for refugees as it's more financially beneficial to private owners.

GPs are over run with patients and if you ring, and ask for an appointment you are told to present yourself at an ED pushing on the opposite end of hospitals too. For example, there was a time when a GP could carry out an ECG in their surgery before clogging up ED, now they don't have time and you're told to go to ED.

Triage centres opened here and there over the last number of years, for minor emergencies such as sprains, breaks stitches but operate from 9 to 5. This needs extending.

We also have no phn or carers allocated decent hours to those who could actually make it back to their home if they got a small bit of help.

My wife is a A&E Doctor, your post has the same consistency as Donnelly’s excrement.

A huge number of people attending A&Es daily are there because they think their problem is an emergency and because it is quicker/more convenient to go to the A&E than it is to wait for an appointment with a GP.

Doctors waiting times are certainly a contributing factor, the reasons for the shortage of GPs is well known and for another thread, similarly the reasons why delays occur in discharging patients particularly this time of year have been widely covered in the media. But that does not change the fact that the premise of your post, only those that need to be in the A&E are in the A&E, is wrong.

I wish my wife worked 9-5 like you suggest, God knows she would love that, as would all Hospital staff, but she hadn’t worked 9-5 for nearly 30 yrs, neither have the vast majority of those connected to A&E. The staff are burned out, sick, tired, and leaving, there is no more to give. Army assisted triage outside the hospital, in a tent, staffed by who? and you know well the problem would be exacerbated by people having to wait/queue outside this time of year before they can get inside to be seen. Have you forgotten the headlines when people had to queue outside Dublin airport?

This all seems simple to you to solve, make staff work harder, faster, longer, commandeer private hospitals, put all their patients on hold, and what, take on hundreds of new staff to look after the sick from the general hospital there? Or do you think heart surgeons/orthopaedic surgeons/Dematologists/plastic surgeons and their staff are suddenly going to convert to A&E practitioners?

First world country plunging down to a potential third world healthcare situation. It's bleak as fvck.

I'd hate to be in poor health and/or in need of a roof over my head right now.

We really are all fur coat and no knickers in this kip.

'Have you ever been to a third world country? It looks very different to Ireland, we just have far higher expectations than people who live in undeveloped nations.'

No sh1t sherlock.

And yet you think we are “plunging” towards one? Hyperbole maybe, but perhaps you should look at conditions in actual third world countries, and count yourself lucky.

But that is the difference, we are not a Third World country........we are paying dearly, each and every one of us, in our taxes, in a First World country like Ireland to have a basic health system that works!! That is the difference. We are not a Third World country where poverty is rife, where nobody is contributing through high taxes, we are all contributing here and yet our Health care system has people waiting 3 weeks for a GP appointment. Of course we should have "higher expectations"!

The jobs are advertised, personnel do not want them, how does that equate to “not hiring enough”?

I agree with you, more staff are needed, but you can’t stop staff leaving, and you can’t make people take jobs they don’t want.

Can’t dispute that we pay enough in taxes, and Government spend in healthcare is enormous, perhaps we need the German model, where 7.3% of everyone’s income is deducted for health insurance. That will give a huge boost to the health pot and allow more to be spent.

You're right. It will only get worse unless work conditions improve. Nurses and doctors are leaving in droves.