Why does our health service suck so much ass?

Have to remember we're not paying for it. Germany/netherlands you gotta pay minimum 100-1[20 per month for mandatory health insurance

Most I ever spent on doctors was around 400 in one year. Otherwise maybe 50-200 but some years nothing. For the vast majority of people the irish system is preferable

MagicMarker wrote: »

My mother had to go to hospital this morning at around 7.30, it's now after 5pm and she still hasn't seen a doctor. It's absolutely sickening tbh.

A/E uses mix of triage and a first come-first served cab-ranking system. There is a technical grading on triage (see manchester triage) but this is the way i used to always remember it:
1. pretty much dead;
2. almost dead;
3. potentially seriously ill;
4. probably ok;
5. waster

Most patients are 3s; unless things are seriously fcukin' ridiculously busy, a 3 is very unlikely to be waiting 9+ hours (put it this way, i dont ever rememebr a patient waiting for > 6 hours in a about 9 months of working in a major A/E)- so it sounds like your mother has been triaged as a 4, which in the vast majority of cases is something that can be dealt with by a GP. If there is any chance your GP could see her, go to him; if he has already sent you in, God help you, that is fcukin awful.

You could always tell the triage nurse that she now has chest tightness and shortness of breath......

Not enough doctors.

I work in an Emergency in Australia. There are 13.5 WTE consultants in the dept. There are 5 consultants in total on the floor during the day (staggered).

In Ireland, there are about 60 ED consultants. That's for the country.

If the HSE wants people seen, hire more staff. Don't drive people out of the country. I would suggest the following:

- pay doctors money for the time they work. This is most cases does not happen.

- when your doctors work 70+ hours in many (likely most) cases, and where 36-48 hour shifts are common (friend of mine recently worked 72 hours straight), don't suddenly cut their holiday entitlements by 2 weeks per year. And if you're rosterinf them for 72 hours, pay them for 72 hours, not just some other lesser random number.

- if you have doctors who are supposed to be training, and for which they MUST pay 2000-3000 euro per year for the pleasure, TRAIN them! All mates at home are telling me that no training is provided, and instead of the apparent senior doctor support that is apparently available at 3am when someone gets properly sick, there is none. Why? Because the ****ing HSE don't bother to arrange that cover

- if you're in an Obstetric hospital, training junior doctors to use an ultrasound machine, for instance. Why? Because you're asking that junior doctor to see pregnant women, scan them and interpret the results. Without training!!! Without having even used a scanning machine before! The HSE will tell you that there is a more senior doctor in house at the same time. What they won't tell you is that that senior doctor is invariably in emergency theatre for the whole night! This happens in a large obstetric hospital in Dublin, and certainly in others.

+++ many more rants, but too numerous to share

Sorry to hear about your Mam OP.

I have to chime in here, I'm living in America and even though my job provides healthcare coverage I am praying that I don't get seriously sick. For those unfortunate people who get cancer or have recurring medical problems the bills are astronomical, even with insurance.

I've noticed a massive difference between the attitude to hospitals there and in Ireland. People in America just can't go to hospital, that's why a lot of people self-medicate and the drug companies have such a stranglehold on the population.

A friend of mine is bi-polar and her medication is $300/month. She doesn't have insurance. SO basically her choice is to find a way to pay these outrageous costs or allow her mental health to suffer. Luckily her parents pay. But seriously!

I recognise that the Irish Medical Service is poorly managed and doctors and nurses are stretched to capacity but it's still better than what we have here in the good old U. S. of A.

This is no way an excuse for the shocking treatment of your mother, or of Biggins' daughter. Just adding my 2c!

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

What exactly do you mean by 'the boot' , our doctors and nurses are amongst the best paid in the world.?

They may be amongst the best paid in the world, but there could be more of them if it wasn't for the amount of money being wasted on things that are not needed.

Its the temporary front line staff, not protected by contracts that are getting the boot as the local departments cant afford to pay them.

I work in one of the big Dublin Hospitals in administration and calling the health service inefficient is the biggest understatement in the world. From the top down the whole thing is a fúcking joke.

Too many insanely overpaid consultants who are only actually in the hopsital an hour or two a week when their yearly wage could employ another 5-6 nurses which are badly needed.

Too many pen pushers as has been rightly pointed out. Many of them working in the health service for years and can't be fired even if management tried to because they're all so insanely unionised.

The free holidays thing isn't some big rumour either. It does happen, not abroad really, but from this hospital there is regularly groups of consultants sent to the likes of Carton House/Mount Juliet etc on weekends away completely free of charge.

Frisbee wrote: »

I work in one of the big Dublin Hospitals in administration and calling the health service inefficient is the biggest understatement in the world. From the top down the whole thing is a fúcking joke.

Too many insanely overpaid consultants who are only actually in the hopsital an hour or two a week when their yearly wage could employ another 5-6 nurses which are badly needed.

Too many pen pushers as has been rightly pointed out. Many of them working in the health service for years and can't be fired even if management tried to because they're all so insanely unionised.

The free holidays thing isn't some big rumour either. It does happen, not abroad really, but from this hospital there is regularly groups of consultants sent to the likes of Carton House/Mount Juliet etc on weekends away completely free of charge.

Another problem is the constant uninformed comment you get from one group in the health service about another. Almost always innacurate/misleading and only serves to further damage morale and service delivery by setting clinical staff against administrative staff.

Its not uncommon to be waiting 10 hours or more in A&E in the larger hospitals. A few of my relatives have been on chairs in A&E for 24 hours.

One of my relatives was left on a trolley for 73 hours after having a heart attack and stroke (and later died) so I have no faith in the health service in this country.

A neighbour fell down the stairs a year back and hit her head. She wouldnt go to the hospital as she was afraid she would be waiting all night to see a doctor so she decided to go to bed and go to her GP the following morning. She died during the night.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who dont realise how bad A&E is and only when they have to spend time there do they see just have fcuked up our health system is.

gazzer wrote: »

A neighbour fell down the stairs a year back and hit her head. She wouldnt go to the hospital as she was afraid she would be waiting all night to see a doctor so she decided to go to bed and go to her GP the following morning. She died during the night.

But this is the reason why we need to be careful when we make decrying the health service a national sport and when people make ridiculous comparisons with third-world countries.