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Child Item

Your experiences with the HSE ?

Muahahaha

Thought I'd share my experience of our health system. More or less two years ago I begun going down the gym to lose weight and get fit after too good a time in my twenties.

Anyway long story short I used to measure my heart rate through the sensors on the exercise bike. After 40 mins of cardio my ticker would be beating at around 80-85 beats per minute, which obviously isn't good, it should be beating a good bit faster than that during exercise. So something is wrong and I go to the doctor who refers me to a cardiologist in the Mater. Appointment took 4 months, not too bad I thought. So I have a chat with him and explain the gym thing and he says it sounds like one of my ventricles isn't pumping enough or at all. Not good. So I'm put on a waiting list for two tests, an MRI scan and a echo cardigram.

I wait five months and the echo comes go, attend that. Still nothing on the MRI scan. Another four months passes and I ring them up to be told by the secretary I'm being processed. Another three months and I ring again, but this time I get more info- basically my file got 'lost' but now it is 'found'. So months after their cock up only finally then am I beginning to join the Q for a MRI scan, the secretary said she couldn't speed it up even though it was their cock up. Anyway I finally had the MRI scan in April this year. The results of MRI scans are pretty instantaneous but now it is August and I still haven't heard from them, yet again.

So I ring up there this morning to Mater Outpatients number. It rings as busy, over and over again. I go to the website to get the number of the cardiology dept, it's not listed. Then I ring the main switch, she puts me through to cardiology who ask me who my consultant is and I tell her 'to be honest I haven't seen this guy in two years now and I can't remember his name'. She looks up my name and finds him as Dr.X which jogs my memory so she patches me through to his secretary where I'm met by an answering machine which sez:

"This is Dr.Xs secretary in the Cardiology Dept. I am away on holidays until August XX. Do not leave voicemails on this machine as they will not be listened to. In an emergency ring the cardiology department"

Unbelievable. Probably the most annoying thing to me about our health system is that when you actually get access to it the consultants, doctors and nurses you meet are absolutely world class. But in order to get access to them you've gotta takes your chances with the incompetent cesspit that is HSE administration. A place where the secretary of a cardiac consultant goes on holidays with no replacement and tells people not to be annoying her with voicemails because "they will not be listened to". Which pretty much sums up the entire attitude of HSE administrators to the general public.

I read somewhere before that in the HSE for every single doctor or nurse on the frontline of our health services there is 2 administrators working in a back office somewhere doing sweet f all. During the Celtic Tiger days FF created these 'jobs' to buy votes, during the same period FF allowed an extra 5,000 administrators be employed by the Dept of Social Welfare at a time of record levels of unemployment nationally. Imagine what was going on in the HSE during the boom.

These administrators in the HSE is what has our health service fooked. They are holding the country to ransom, from both an economic perspective and a health one too.

//rant over//

I'll go back to paying my taxes like a muppet now :mad:

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nelly17

You know you can get an MRi for like 300 Euro, not sure how much a cardiogram costs but if you're really planking it over your health you can pay to get it checked out almost instantly. Aside from thr rights and wrongs of Health insurance and a 2 tier health care system.

Dayum

Useless.

Deregulate the whole heathcare industry.

not yet

Let me be the first to say it................

They are a grand bunch of lads.

KungPao

The missus was at the Mater (public) recently. Lovely people and she was well looked after. Kept in overnight for a few scans and had drugs given to her etc. Only cost us 75 bananas. Can't complain really.

They did tell us to get as much done in one go, if you get me, rather than go home and book scans for another time...told us we'd probably be waiting a bit longer.

Birneybau

Never had an issue personally.

Birneybau

KungPao wrote: »

The missus was at the Mater (public) recently. Lovely people and she was well looked after. Kept in overnight for a few scans and had drugs given to her etc. Only cost us 75 bananas. Can't complain really.

They did tell us to get as much done in one go, if you get me, rather than go home and book scans for another time...told us we'd probably be waiting a bit longer.

How much do 75 bananas go for these days?

KungPao

Birneybau wrote: »

How much do 75 bananas go for these days?

75 bones.

not yet

Muahahaha wrote: »

Thought I'd share my experience of our health system. More or less two years ago I begun going down the gym to lose weight and get fit after too good a time in my twenties.

Anyway long story short I used to measure my heart rate through the sensors on the exercise bike. After 40 mins of cardio my ticker would be beating at around 80-85 beats per minute, which obviously isn't good, it should be beating a good bit faster than that during exercise. So something is wrong and I go to the doctor who refers me to a cardiologist in the Mater. Appointment took 4 months, not too bad I thought. So I have a chat with him and explain the gym thing and he says it sounds like one of my ventricles isn't pumping enough or at all. Not good. So I'm put on a waiting list for two tests, an MRI scan and a echo cardigram.

I wait five months and the echo comes go, attend that. Still nothing on the MRI scan. Another four months passes and I ring them up to be told by the secretary I'm being processed. Another three months and I ring again, but this time I get more info- basically my file got 'lost' but now it is 'found'. So months after their cock up only finally then am I beginning to join the Q for a MRI scan, the secretary said she couldn't speed it up even though it was their cock up. Anyway I finally had the MRI scan in April this year. The results of MRI scans are pretty instantaneous but now it is August and I still haven't heard from them, yet again.

So I ring up there this morning to Mater Outpatients number. It rings as busy, over and over again. I go to the website to get the number of the cardiology dept, it's not listed. Then I ring the main switch, she puts me through to cardiology who ask me who my consultant is and I tell her 'to be honest I haven't seen this guy in two years now and I can't remember his name'. She looks up my name and finds him as Dr.X which jogs my memory so she patches me through to his secretary where I'm met by an answering machine which sez:

"This is Dr.Xs secretary in the Cardiology Dept. I am away on holidays until August XX. Do not leave voicemails on this machine as they will not be listened to. In an emergency ring the cardiology department"

Unbelievable. Probably the most annoying thing to me about our health system is that when you actually get access to it the consultants, doctors and nurses you meet are absolutely world class. But in order to get access to them you've gotta takes your chances with the incompetent cesspit that is HSE administration. A place where the secretary of a cardiac consultant goes on holidays with no replacement and tells people not to be annoying her with voicemails because "they will not be listened to". Which pretty much sums up the entire attitude of HSE administrators to the general public.

I read somewhere before that in the HSE for every single doctor or nurse on the frontline of our health services there is 2 administrators working in a back office somewhere doing sweet f all. During the Celtic Tiger days FF created these 'jobs' to buy votes, during the same period FF allowed an extra 5,000 administrators be employed by the Dept of Social Welfare at a time of record levels of unemployment nationally. Imagine what was going on in the HSE during the boom.

These administrators in the HSE is what has our health service fooked. They are holding the country to ransom, from both an economic perspective and a health one too.

//rant over//

I'll go back to paying my taxes like a muppet now :mad:

Long story short..

Told my file was missing after 6 months, got on to Leo the Lion who done fcuk all. Waited a year to be asked: Have you got an appointment elsewhere or would you like to be kept on our list, fcuking joke...

How many people have died waiting on appointments in this sh1thole of a country.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I have always been very happy with the service I personally got from the HSE.

Steviemoyne

Put on a waiting list to get an eye exam...waited 6 months then took the hit and went private. Not a hope in hell was I waiting any longer for something as important as my eyes.

Before that I went to the GP and asked to see a psychologist. Heard nothing back for months and eventually forgot about it. About 8 months down the line I went on a separate issue and GP asks me do I still need to see one. Went out thinking that if there actually was something seriously wrong with me mentally waiting that long could have had serious consequences (it didn't).

Edit: I should add that as soon as I took the private route I was seen the next day and the entire examination was about an hour.

Mrs Garth Brooks

Had a rash a couple years ago, GP referred me to a detmertologist. It took two years to get an appointment. By the the time I got the appointment, the rash was gone!

Currently waiting on another appointment, about 8 weeks. Someone over on the long term illness forum took four years to get an appointment!!! That's ok, I've got three years and 10 months to go.

gazzer

Both my parents have had files go missing numerous times over the years whilst waiting for appointments. It has become such a common occurance that both of them ring the secretary of the relevant area once a month to make sure that they are still on the list for an appointment.

Also had an Aunt who was dying of cancer get brought into A&E after having a stroke. She was left on a trolley for 48 hours while we begged and pleaded for her to be put in a ward. Nobody wanted to take responsibility for getting her moved to a ward. We even said that we would pay for her to go to a private room as we knew she did not have long left and wanted her last hours to have some dignity She was eventually put in a transition ward where there was 9 other patients. 3 of whom were shouting and roaring from the minute my Aunt was brought into the ward. She died 4 hours later. Absolutely horrible experience

P_1

Had a very recent good experience in Beaumont.

To cut a long story short, noticed one of my balls was getting a bit bigger than normal (no pain or anything), went to the GP to suss out what the story was. GP wrote me a referral and sent me on my way to A&E after advising me to bring a packed lunch and a book. Into A&E, had bloods taken and also after a while had an ultrasound done. A few hours later they said that I had a tumour and was admitted that night to have surgery the following day. They kept me in a few days longer then to get a CT scan done to make sure that I spoke up in time about the bothersome ball in question.

Moral of the story, once you get into the system, you're grand and make sure to get as much done as you can while you're still in it. Sadly for a lot of people it's the getting into the system part that is the worry.

Barely There

Had to bring my child down to the local health centre to get an inoculation because she had missed hers when they came to the school.

Turned up at the appointed time along with about 20-30 other parents with their kids.
Told to wait in corridor.
No chairs, no queuing system.
Very hassled nurse trying to get people's details. Everything seemed to be kept in paper format - no evidence that there's any type of computer filing system to retain people's information - I mean WTF? - It's 2014.
Every file on every child seemed to be missing or have some sort of problem with it.

After about 2 hours we got seen by a doctor and got the injections.

I left very stressed and incredibly grateful that I don't have to have much interaction with the HSE.
I feel sorry for people who have to interact with them more frequently due to ill health and the staff who have to work in those completely ridiculous conditions.

gazzer

A friend of mine started work as a social worker in the HSE a couple of years ago and I remember him telling me that EVERYTHING had to faxed to the relevant section you were dealing with. No such thing as emailing. He said the amount of faxes that got lost when they came in was unreal.

Formosa

Have had a lot of dealings with them in the last 2 years ago, fantastic care and service from the off, haven't had to part with a penny.

The Backwards Man

I do a bit work for them now and again. Great to do business with, money always on time, never any issues.

As for getting sick, if I'm too poorly to make it to Ballykelly, dig me a hole where I'm lying.

nelly17

I had the misfortune to be in hospital twice for a Minor enough proceedure in the last year - once was private once was public, Honestly very little in the quality of service recieved, had a 7 hour wait from presenting at A&E (as per doctors orders) at the Public hospital and a 2 hour wait at the private hospital.

I think someone said on here earlier the big barrier is getting into the system not the treatment. So maby the OP has a point.

Piliger

I've had a lot of treatment over the last ten years and the HSE has been absolutely brilliant. Communication between my GP and the hospital has been seamless, treatment wonderful and the staff are really caring and great. Any huge organisation like this is always going to have glitches. NOt that it's perfect either. The HSE is a product of decades of appalling political football shenanigans driven by the voting public's ignorance.

IvaBigWun

gazzer wrote: »

Both my parents have had files go missing numerous times over the years

I wonder how many secretaries in the civil service use this excuse? Quite a lot I would imagine.

Turtwig

It's not perfect but in my experience anything urgent get's dealt with pronto. Less urgent things means massive backlogs. That impacts the quality of the life people and often times they might even deteriorate into being urgent. So it's no way an ideal system but at the same time it's not terrible either. Stuff goes missing, had a blood test and x-ray go awol. That's frustrating alright! Appointments arrive at the same time. GP referrals need to be delivered by hand. Ok, they don't but it is advisable. Often times it can a few weeks before a letter delivered to the hospital actually reaches the right desk. :eek: Then again, if you need to see a GP you can see them within a day.

Mixed, is how I'd describe it. Some areas need improvement, some areas are obviously buckling and some areas are fine.

IvaBigWun

P_1 wrote: »

Had a very recent good experience in Beaumont.

Ive heard from two different friends that Beaumont is excellent.

mikeyjames9

overall not too bad

i got impatient a few times and resorted to reading x-rays and diagnosing injuries myself in front of the doctors

they mostly ignored my input though

Muahahaha

nelly17 wrote: »

I had the misfortune to be in hospital twice for a Minor enough proceedure in the last year - once was private once was public, Honestly very little in the quality of service recieved, had a 7 hour wait from presenting at A&E (as per doctors orders) at the Public hospital and a 2 hour wait at the private hospital.

I think someone said on here earlier the big barrier is getting into the system not the treatment. So maby the OP has a point.

That's been my experience with the HSE in general. Getting access to the system is the problem, once you are in it then it generally works quite well.

I think we really need to either make the system 90% private or else 90% public. This hybrid system is not working. At the end of the day the reason why public patients have to wait so long is because time and resources are taken up privately where far more money is made.

But I don't want to blame private patients for my own woes, they have just as much right to healthcare as I do and if they can afford VHI premiums then more power to them.

All people want in the public system is access to it. Without having to beg. So you gotta ask what is preventing this access and by and large from my experiences it is the administrators and management of the HSE who are by now just totally out of control and couldn't care less about delivering any semblance of a health service to the public.

I was just astounded that a secretary in a cardiologist dept could leave an answering machine message saying 'don't leave a message because I won't be listening to it'. Like what kind of boss does she have that would allow that behaviour to go on ? If someone was an administrator in a company selling toothpicks and put up an answering machine message basically telling customers not to be annoying them then they'd be fired, and rightly so. But here we have an administrator who controls access to cardiologists who people kinda need to see, to you know, prevent heart attacks and stuff.

My own heart problems aren't an emergency (I think) but two years waiting and nothing is just unacceptable. But I really feel sorry for those people who have already had heart attacks, surgery, etc and need to see a cardiologist again for so,e reason but who can't because fools in the HSE are losing their files and there is zero accountability for their incompetence at undertaking a simple arbitrary task. Do these people not realise that people's lives are on the line ? And they go losing files, like seriously ?

They couldn't give two hoots from what I can see.

IvaBigWun

Muahahaha wrote: »

"This is Dr.Xs secretary in the Cardiology Dept. I am away on holidays until August XX. Do not leave voicemails on this machine as they will not be listened to. In an emergency ring the cardiology department"

That "Dr X'" should be named so his secretary can be shamed. What sheer bloody arrogance!

IvaBigWun

gazzer wrote: »

A friend of mine started work as a social worker in the HSE a couple of years ago and I remember him telling me that EVERYTHING had to faxed to the relevant section you were dealing with. No such thing as emailing. He said the amount of faxes that got lost when they came in was unreal.

Who the fúck - in 2014 - FAXES things?

The HSE it would seem.

Wompa1

My experience so far (also some of my immediate families)

My dad was in a bad car accident when he was in his 30's. He went to physio therapy for a long time but it didn't help he was in very bad pain. After a couple of years of back and forth and waiting, he was set to have an operation. He had the operation which actually ended up in his frequent pain becoming chronic...a short while after the operation when at home, he went into ER because his back all along the spin had turned black. He was told he needed to have another operation, which he did. After this he was told he had the late stages of cancer and may die very soon, possibly even within 24 hours.

As a child, I remember my mother at home with us balling her eyes out. Anyways turns out they were somehow completely wrong about that but after this he was set to live with Chronic pain for years. He would keep attempting all kind of physic and acupuncture for years but to no avail. Eventually he was told he should get an operation to put an aluminum slab into his spine. He agreed as this would somehow alleviate all of his pain and get him back to a more normal life.

We were told the operation was a success and we were all over the moon. Then around 3am, my mother woke all of us kids up and said we needed to get dressed and go to the hospital, There's something wrong with dad.

We go in and we're told he had a stroke. That is all we're told...we get there just in time to see the priest over his bed giving him the last rites and him yelling at him to get the f**k away from him. We're told he needs another operation...which is a little suspect since they think it was a stroke.....(by the way it wasn't a stroke but getting that answer took some doing!, also if it was a stroke and it was caused by the first operation then the second would for sure kill him)

The second operation actually did kill him, he was dead for several minutes. Which I only know because a lad in my villages aunt worked as a nurse in that hospital and was there.

Anyways. Long story short. To this day my dad is partially paralyzed and still in chronic pain. Interestingly on the left side of his body, he now feels hot things cold and cold things hot. He's refused to ever go to a doctor again...he's ballooned in weight, since the operation, it's my personal belief that he's f**ked up in the head but that may be from sitting at home every day for over 15 years..he hasn't worked which has put a huge strain on my mother.

In the end, we found out from other Doctors that he suffered a broken neck during the night because his after care was f**ked up. He had an operation on his spine and forgot to stabilize him in the bed. He rolled over and snapped his neck. My parents attempted to bring a malpractice suit agains the hospital but back then they were told the law profession and the health profession in Ireland were pretty tight...malpractice suits were very rare. Less so now.

At the time Galway did not have an MRI machine or any modern day equipment...it had profound and last affects on our whole family and has shaped the rest of our lives. My dad was self employed and according to him, this keeps him from being able to claim disability. I'm not sure if he'll have much of a pension but the way things are looking, he won't live until he get sot that age...

My brother went in to get his tonsil out when he was 14. He had to spend 3 days in Hospital and was throwing up blood......a girl I worked with at the time had her tonsil out by the same surgeon with the same results. Her friend also supposedly had her tonsils out by the same surgeon with the same results...

For myself.....I started getting bad wrist pain, which wasn't all that surprising as I work in IT and spent over 9 years working in retail. I went to doctors multiple times over 2 years...always being told the same thing...do these exercises until eventually I got fed up and told one of them, I want something else, this is not working. He let out a sigh and sent me to a physio. After 4 sessions she sent me to acupuncture. After another 4 sessions she sent me back to the physio. The physio then reviewed my notes again and said, you've had a virus in the last 2 years...what was it? I tell her Swine Flu...she says Ohhhhh...and tells me people who had that have been suffering from several residual effects. And told me it could be caused by a blood disease.

She sends me to a doctor to get blood tests done and a Genetics test...while I'm getting the blood tests done, he also sends me in for X-rays. The blood tests show high iron absorption, which can indicate Hemochromatosis, I was told OVER THE PHONE...my X-rays show thinning of the bones around my wrists, which apparently could have been caused by iron depositing into my wrists. So I get sent to a private clinic for my wrists to see a specialist for arthritis. The doctor forgot to send my X-rays over, the specialist huffs and puffs and says the X-Ray machine in the hospital is a POS and the light used is too intense and can make it look like there's thinning of the bone when there's not. He promptly without any evidence tells me I have tennis elbow and tells me to go to the other room for shots...I get shots in each of my elbows...I drive home and my hands seize up on the steering wheel (I wasn't warned about that)..I pull over until I can close my hands again and am in awful pain for the rest of the day..

Anyways, I then had to go a hematologist consultant. It took 7 months to get my appointment (I opted to go public)..The appointment in total took about 5 hours...the nurses that drew my bloods did not read the notes and neglected to check my ferreten levels (spelled wrong but autocorrect is being an a-hole) the first time around so I had to go back to the end of the line...When I finally got to see the Consultant, I was told my ferreten wasn't THAT high...Iron absorption was high but is not a good indicator. He said, the genetics test showed I was a carrier for Hemochromatosis and then said, come back in 5 months!! and quickly walked out of the room...he didn't even look up from his notes. I'm not exaggerating or kidding when I say he was there for 2 minutes. He didn't ask if I had any questions....

I was left there with a Junior Doctor and started asking questions about the disease...some he could answer, most he could not. He just told me when I come back I ask the consultant next time......

5 months later. No appointment. I gave up. I talked to a lady who ran an organization for people with the disease in Ireland who told me more than any of the doctors.

All of the therapy, acupuncture, Doctors visits and tests cost me over 2k euro...

I had another experience with a knee injury with a p1ssy specialist. He sent me to Aqua therapy and said if after a few weeks it doesn't feel better to get an X-ray and come back. Which I did...he acted like a little brat kid when I showed up again because the Aqua Therapy was excruiating....he reluctantly looks at my X-Ray...I swear, he was going see this is your blah blah which is normal, this is your blah blah which is normal, here you can sever cartilage damage just above the knee, this is your blah, blah which is normal. I said, hold on....did you say I have cartilage damage. He said yes...I said, well what can I do about that. Then he explained to me that I was too young to even remotely consider surgery and he advised me to just live with the pain.

Unfortunately I've had more bad experiences than good in Ireland

Wompa1

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Who the fúck - in 2014 - FAXES things?

The HSE it would seem.

You'd be surprised. For compliance purposes in the United States a lot of regulated Industries still require Fax for anything which requires a signature. A digital signature has not been accepted yet

Sleepy

It's the lack of access to them that drives me nuts. Mrs Sleepy was diagnosed with IBS earlier this year by a new GP within minutes of meeting her. Her previous GP was of the "keep coming back and giving me €60 a go and I'll keep doing **** all" school.

Even though her new GP is clearly a lot better in that he diagnosed her in order to try the medications, I'm still quite pissed off. By definition, IBS is a diagnosis you can only make when everything else has been ruled out. It took her old GP a fucking *year* to organise a blood test and a colonoscopy. Now, I'm not a doctor, but simple logic dictates that in order for IBS to be diagnosed, the next step after a colonoscopy is either a stool analysis or an endoscopy. How it takes months or years to arrange: a blood test, a stool analysis, a colonoscopy and an endoscopy baffles me: none of these are cutting edge technology and, in theory at least, there's no good reason the lot of them couldn't be done within a week.

Yes, I'm sure this could be done privately for a few grand but, frankly, it shouldn't have to be. I pay more than enough tax to cover it. I'm not one for big government but free, single-tier healthcare and education are two things I passionately believe in. If you want a fancy room and an a la carte menu, fine, use a private hospital but the level of care you receive should be the same whether you're a dole-scamming junkie or the president.

Flibbles

Good experience - had a sore testicle, went to out of hours clinic, before being referred to A&E. 3 nurses had a grope at it, bloods taken, epididymitis diagnosis. All in all about 4 huors, so that was good.

Bad experience - took 13 months to get my ears cleaned out (apparently my super power is ear wax production), 16 months and counting for an actual hearing test.