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Irish health service stories

Tusky

I'm looking for stories in regards to the Irish health service. They can be positive, negative or humorous. Anything from hospital waiting times or recent news stories to a funny trip in an ambulance. All are welcome!

They will be used on a current affairs radio show on Friday and I will of course give boards.ie a mention.

Also guys, if you want to stick up your real name and your location (county is fine) that would be great too. They will be read out. Name the hospital you dealt with if possible too.

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mollie006

Tusky.....what station will this be on? Would like to hear the whole show.
Thank you.

chopperbyrne

Recently had to be taken to A&E in Beaumont Hospital with shooting pains on the left side of my chest.

I was in the hospital for about four and a half hours, but A&E was quite full.

Was initially seen to after about half an hour to have blood pressure and heart rate checked.

About an hour and a half later I was seen to by a doctor. He was very pleasant and did seem genuinely concerned.

Got an x-ray done about half hour later. The woman giving the x-ray wasn't very sympathetic when I told her I couldn't take a deep breath without being in extreme pain.

X-ray revealed nothing and the doctor stuck with his initial assumption that the problem was muscular and prescribed strong pain killers and also a Ventolin inhaler as I had a history of asthma.

All in all, I was happy with the service I received, but I'm still unhappy with the general state of the health service.

Gerard Byrne, Dublin.

galway008

2 tier system more like 3 tier.
Broke my leg a year ago. Went to AandE in Galway University. Had to go to Merlin Park next morning for an operation to put in a pin. Turned up at Merlin Park and was filling in the forms. Administrator said to me do I have VHI I said yes plan B (like most people). She then goes well if you want to have the operation today you will have to pay for it yourself, I was dumbfounded, I said yes and signed some form. They never billed me tough. Now adays I go to AandE in the North better service and none of that rubbish.

Saint_Mel

Few years ago I dislocated and broke a finger playing football. Went over to Tullamore hospital, sitting in A&E for 4-5 hours, was a busy night for them. Got x-rays done before the doctor there yanked it back into place and I was told to come back in the morning and they'd see about the break.

Went up again next morning and saw the orthapedic doctor. Strapped me up in a very awkard splint and was told to come back in a month. Came back a month later and same doctor asked who put on the splint as they had done it totally wrong ... and had used the wrong kind of splint altogether for the injury!
Told him that it was him and the response was, "oh, thats odd".

Went to see an orthapedic specialist after that and he reckoned he could not fault the treatment in Tullamore, despite the wrong splints being used!

I still cannot straighten my finger properly.

Ronquist

I got into the hospitals and came out somehow with hepatitus B, since i got no proof cant do **** about it

Nightwish

My granduncle had a kidney removed 10 years ago in a Dublin hospital. They never told him he had cancerous growths on his lungs at the time. He was only officially diagnosed 3 months ago. He waited in the local hospital to be transferred to Dublin for treatment, in the end he was discharged and told to ring Dublin every day to see if there was a bed available. After 2 weeks of waiting he eventually got a bed. When he arrived in Dublin, the hospital wouldnt admit him as his file had been "misplaced". He eventually got started with his treatment but he shouldnt have had a 10 year delay and shouldnt have been treated the way he was.

In Kilkenny Professor Drumm was here recently to "open" the Stroke Unit. It cannot open however as none of the specialised nursing jobs for the unit have been approved.

CJay

A certain hospital gave up on my Gran when she was seriously Ill, upped her morphine and it was like they were leaving her to die. Wasn't until a family friend (who's a nurse) recognised what they were doing and raised holy hell. She got through it and lived on.
Very very scary.
Half the prolem with her condition was that she was misdiagnosed.
However I'm not going to mention the hospital or my name...

Reading this thread makes me very afraid of ever being seriously ill

Tusky

Thanks guys, some good stuff here. Just to repeat myself, if you dont mind your first name and location being read out please include it within your post.

mollie006

Tusky, Please reply as to which station will be discussing this information tomorrow.
Thank you.

Tusky

mollie006 wrote: »

Tusky, Please reply as to which station will be discussing this information tomorrow.
Thank you.

I pm'd you about it some time ago!

Sully

Tusky wrote: »

I pm'd you about it some time ago!

Send me on that info please!

Susannahmia

Sully wrote: »

Send me on that info please!

me too please

phantom_lord

it's an apt forum u mod Tusky.

sam34

Tusky wrote: »

I pm'd you about it some time ago!

whats the big secret about it? if theres a programme being aired publicly why cant you post the details of it for all to see?

Zaph

Ruptured tendons in both knees almost 2 years ago. Spent 26 hours on a trolley in A&E in St. Vincent's before finally being moved to a ward. In that time I was variously wheeled in and out of a small rooms and curtained off cubicles, depending on what was needed or how much I was in the way, before eventuallly being left in the corridor. If I needed to pee I had to try and attract the attention of someone who wasn't too busy so that they could wheel me into a cubicle for a couple of minutes. After about 22 hours one particularly nice nurse (although to be fair all the staff were superb, I couldn't fault them) took pity on me and managed to claim a cubicle for me so that I could get a couple of hours sleep. I can confirm that after the first couple of hours those trolleys are like lying on concrete.

[Deleted User]

Sully wrote: »

Send me on that info please!

Me three.

sunnyjim

I'm not putting my stories up unless I know who they're for.

Toto Wolfcastle

I was given a nearly 4 month wait for an appointment to get a lump in my breast checked. I was only 20, they probably thought I'd bounce back. Good thing it wasn't cancer because it's hard to bounce back from being dead. Also, if it had been cancer I was lucky that my Granddad was on the board of the hospital and managed to get me an appointment within a week. As I sat in the empty waiting room of the breast clinic I couldn't help but wonder why it would take so long?

I am aware that others wait longer though, so I count myself lucky.

I'd also like to add that my housemate went to A and E last week with headaches and was seen within 2 hours, which is pretty damn fast by today's standards. They did close A and E though to stop anyone else getting in even though it was a quiet enough day.

I would also like to know what show some of the stories will be featured on. I hardly think you would say no to a larger audience which you might get if you say it here!

Tusky

Its for a college radio station. 'goradio'

phantom_lord wrote: »

it's an apt forum u mod Tusky.

Haha, indeed!

Catari Jaguar

Deleted User wrote: »

(turns out I've got arythmia but it was never caught)

Snap!

I had a heart episode and was brought to Louglinstown heart area and was seen too after about 40 min (my heart was really irregular and I couldn't breathe and was very upset and scared). Nurse was lovely. I got all hooked up and a drip thing, a ECG scan, chest X ray and doctor came to check on me and explain what had happened in about the space of 2 hours. (turns out I'm not to eat sugar!!) Was only 70e too...

Cat, Dublin

The_Minister

Sully wrote: »

Send me on that info please!

And me if you would, sir.

old boy

i have chronic back trouble, a few years ago, after a home visit from a doctor i was given an amount of medication, and an ambulance was called to take me to to limk regional ,as i could not walk sit stand etc, i had to be streachered, to a and e, after two hours inon a streatcher i asked a doc for something for pain, was asked my name, 10 minutes later the doc said i was not in hospital, i says what, so i asked him wrere de fcuk was i,the doctor, in very bad english said i was not in the hospital, yeah says i, it turned out the ambulance crew never booked me in, x ray done , was told my back was perfect, i could not laugh with the pain, 2 am i was asked could i get some one to collect me, the o/h cannot drive i explained, we will get you a taxi they said, you have to pay, on a tuesday and the pension not due until thursday i told them, have you not any money a hide in the house i was asked, no says i, could you not borrow some, they says, yeah at this hour i says, i had 4 injections that night, a script for a ****e load of pills, valium zydol etc, a week in bed, the visiting nurse had to arrange for an item to put on the toilet as i could not sit down, on my next visit to my gp i asked him for the report from the hospital, it read, the patient is trying to draw attention to himself.

Meteoric

sam34 wrote: »

whats the big secret about it? if theres a programme being aired publicly why cant you post the details of it for all to see?

invincibleirish

I posted this a month ago in this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055269214&page=3

in the past 2 weeks, twice an immediate much loved family member had the pleasure of spending 2 nights on a trolley, i had the joy of spending hours in the A&E witnessing my close relative in terrible pain (30 hrs the first time, 30 hours the second time), want to know what made it extra fun? no painkillers could be precribed as the "team" in charge of her could not be contacted as to decide what to prescribe so the on call guy just prescribed solpadine(spelling?) for a women bent over double in pain.

want to know what the kicker is? this was on a Thursday at 5pm, the previous day at 3pm, my loved one had been discharged with a huge prescription (90 euro there), the "team" in charge deemed her fit enough to be discharged despite not knowing what was wrong with her! this was 2 weeks ago and she is still in hospital now!(and for foreseeable future)

So nevermind the 90 euro prescription, the 60 euro doctor charge, the approx 80 euro so far i have paid in parking charges at the hospital so far, i took my loved ones mail to her in hospital over the weekend, whats this? a 600 euro bill from the HSE for her stay, despite the fact they ****ed up!

this has all played out over the past few weeks against the Bertie drama, well **** him, he has had 11 years in power and this is the health service? **** him and **** anyone who defends him.you are wrong.

and whats this? his replacement is a former Health Minister whose most notable contribution whilst in charge of the Department of Health was calling it "Angola"? thats it? thats the best man for the job?

this post is rather long winded, but guess what? i havent had much experience of A&E prior to this, but just to remind you,i've been reading the newspapers, listening to radio etc. for the last few years before my own personal drama,we all hear about how **** the Health services are but usually its just another issue, like traffic, tax etc., but when you have had the experience i have had, you get angry. its happened to me and it might just well happen to you.

tallaght01

My story is......

No-one cares about the provision of health if:

a) you're mentally ill

b) You're very old

C) It won't make an obvious immediate impact (ie politicians love throwing money at catarct surgery, because it wil make a difference to the numbers before the next election.....they're not so keen on long term strategies to prevent drug use etc).

And the great crime is that our government leaves a whole load of people on low incomes without the medical card, so they can't even afford to access their GP/dentist in the first place, to get referred into the ****ey hospital system.

So there

randylonghorn

Annatar wrote: »

Admin is needed! Who will write the letters for the Doctors or do you want Doc's to do that themselves taking them away from patients?

I think we're at cross-purposes, Annatar. I'd cheerfully put a secretary in every ward if it freed up doctors and nurses to do the work they are trained for.

When I referred to "administrative paperpushers" it's these kind of people I meant:

Annatar wrote: »

If you want to know where the money is wasted its in middle to upper management. Waaayyyy to many!!

Susannahmia

Thought I would add to this seeing as I have had another great:rolleyes: experience.

My boyfriend had palpitations all day Thursday after playing soccer and they were still happening yesterday morning. He went to the gp and was referred to Blanchardstown A&E.

We arrived at 12:45pm where he was given an ecg and blood test by a nurse, we then had to wait in the waiting room for ten hours until he saw a doctor at 10:45pm that night. (Man those metal chairs hurt!) Couldn't even leave for a minute as we were terrified we would miss his turn.

While we were there three separate people actually just gave up and left as it was just taking so long without any promise of progress. One guy there said he had been there the night before but had given up and left. According to a few patients that had got in there was only one doctor. When we got in another had just arrived.

By the time the doc and nurse saw him the palpitations had gone of their own accord. The doctor saw us for five minutes, sent him for an x ray looked at it and said that the tests showed nothing and to go back to the gp and get a referral for a cardiologist.

sunnyjim

I twisted a testicle about an hour before I was going on a date with some chick, I put myself through the pain to make the date.

Woke up the next morning in agony, cycled to college, couldn't make lectures with the pain, so I went to the GP.

Took a look, had a feel, and after she resisted ripping her clothes off, she wrote a referal for Beaumount. Got a lift the hospital (couldn't even look at the bike at this stage!), and was seen in 5 minutes. Or less. Wasn't too busy, I've seen it busier.

Couldn't complain. But one of my best mates was in the bed next to me, and another best mates brother was the other side of me - so they heard absolutly everything that the consultant was asking me, sexual history, nature of the pain... everything!! Naturally when the curtains were opened up again, I was greeted by 2 faces, red and watered from laughing so much.... The bastards :pac:

Funny story if anything.