The current hospital / A&E crisis

How is it the wrong message - people visit their gp for all sorts of non urgent stuff that could be dealt with by visiting their pharmacist or using common sense ( especially if they have a free service). I don't think you realise how difficult it is to get to see a gp at the moment if you are actually SICK. In the town I live in if you are sick today you will be lucky to get an appointment in 7 days. The advice the GP receptionists give is you should go to a and e instead whatever your symptoms are - the sad thing is people are taking this advice and clogging up a and e with problems that should be dealt with by a GP.

But in these times when gps are so busy surely it makes sense to stop non urgent stuff.

As I mentioned my GP nobody can get appointments when needed. If I have a sick child with temperature, sore throat etc tomorrow that needs attention and gp receptionist says sorry no appointments until next week what do you recommend I do?

Is it right that the gps appointments are taken up with people with pains in their big toe, don't like the shape of their nose, hypochondriacs with nonsense etc. these appointments were made weeks ago.I don't think it is right given the crisis we are in at the moment.

Do you realise now that for many people their gp service is non existent? It is a HUGE and very worrying issue.

This problem could be coming to your GP practice very soon - you yourself may find it easy to see your GP at the moment but believe me that can change. What would you do if you need to see your GP due to illness and receptionist says sorry no can do?

Oh good god you don't think seeing a sick child is urgent. Have you not heard of strep A recently.

Of course someone that is concerned about a mole should go see their gp. Chronic pain I'm not sure what the gp can do for this person - not alot really. I'm talking about time wasting appointments that could wait or shouldn't be happening at all. If you speak to any gp they deal with alot of time wasters who usually have a medical/gp card and attend their gp with every little issue because it's free.

Of course lack of gp services is contributing to the current crisis.

Interesting article on how University Hospital Waterford (UHW) is avoiding a trolley crisis, (so far...) though I don't know why Pat Leahy in the I.T. insists on calling it 'Waterford hospital' as if we've just the one down here. (For the uninitiated; UPMC Whitfield, St. Patricks, St. Otterans, St. Josephs Dungarvan, St. Vincent's Dungarvan.....

In the past hospitals used to house their staff on site or near by in halls or dorms. They may have to go back to that.

Listening to the various doctors on the radio over the past week, they sound completely broken.

Expect it to get a lot harder to get an appointment when 500,000 more come into the gp card service soon, the reality is when people don't have to pay for a service they will use it for minor things that don't require a doctor at all.

And before anyone jumps on me its not me saying this but a GP that was interviewed after this was announced in the budget.

Ex HSE CEO Tony O'Brien saying that the FFG ministers have been given a script to repeat in the media this week to put blame on everyone else excluding themselves.

He said the problem is clear - not enough beds resulting in constant bed over utilisation which then cannot cope in any surge. He said more beds and staff were needed many years ago and the government knows this.

It's a vicious circle. Staff are leaving due to working conditions. They won't attract of retain if they don't improve work conditions thru more capacity, less overtime hours and improved patient ratios. The lack of politics will to fix things has done more damage that we even realise.

Nurses will not strike while this present crisis is ongoing.

Many of them have been working in their days off for the last week to try to help sirt it out . Hence the frustration .

But nobody wants strikes just effective action by government and HSE management

They (the ones I have experience of) try to leave slots for emergencies that are within their medical ability to deal with.

Perhaps if you are in an area where they are swamped with medical card patients to the point where it effects the viability of the clinic, they might have filter. But I've never heard of that.