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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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EyeSight

I was on the waiting list to get my tonsils out. 1.5 years later they rang me to schedule it in 3 months time. I told them i had forgotten all about it but i don't need it anymore. I was annoyed it took them so long, but thought they'd be happy to have one less person to worry about. HSE woman on the phone got really snarky about it

My girlfriend has a recurring injury(sort of). She knows what it is but cannot see the specialist/consultant without a doctor to refer her. So she needs to wait for it to flair up, pay for a doctor to spend 2 minutes referring her then has to wait for a few weeks to see the consultant. But by that time the symptoms/problems go away and the consultant says(at full charge) to come back when they do, but insists on having the doctor refer her again. So unless waiting times dramatically improve, she will never get it sorted with the HSE

HSE is awful

suicide_circus

I had to have a biopsy. Waited 3 months, no update. Called them. "Hang on there we'll call you back". Called back an anxious hour later. "Yer grand, ye don't have cancer." Sound, thanks for letting me know.

pragmatic1

Overwhelmingly positive. I've had a number of ailments and operations and can say I've been well taken care of by the HSE.

ianobrien

I had a good experience in Tullamore A&E. I stupidly fell crossing a river landing on my shoulder and camera. I knew something was fairly wrong so went to A&E. I was there for about 2.5 hours in which I was poked, prodded, x-rayed and seen. I had chip fractured the humerous. I had four follow on appointments in outpatients there and the time spent in outpatients was between an hour and 1.5 hours, including x-rays, consultant visit and making follow-on appointments in each visit.

I got the bill for €100 which I paid no problems given the service I got. I did go private for my MRI and brought the raw data to my next outpatients visit alright.

Camera survived me falling on it and the dunking in the river. The bloody camera is stronger then my humerous.

steddyeddy

Complete two tier system. You're treated according to the money you were born into.

SMJSF

I've had a lot of experience... was in Care for 12 years, and spent a lot of time in tallaght hospital beforehand!
but have nothing good to say about the mater a&e.... the nurses are great, but the consultants.... AWFUL!!!

Penny Tration

A consultant in Beaumont diagnosed me with... Constipation.

What I actually had? Double pneumonia.

Another (also in Beaumont) had me prepped for surgery to remove my ovary, as a cyst on it had burst.

Except it hadn't, i just had gastritis.

Oh and I've been waiting 2 years to see a cardiologist.

Fcuk the hse.

Turtwig

steddyeddy wrote: »

Complete two tier system. You're treated according to the money you were born into.

I don't agree with this at all. The only thing private does is get's you to see some consultants faster. Pretty much everyone is treated the same, and often time waiting lists are such that being private makes not one jot of a difference especially when it comes to diagnostics. (Though obviously don't tell the expensively paying patrons that.)

steddyeddy

Turtwig wrote: »

I don't agree with this at all. The only thing private does is get's you to see some consultants faster. Pretty much everyone is treated the same, and often time waiting lists are such that being private makes not one jot of a difference especially when it comes to diagnostics. (Though obviously don't tell the expensively paying patrons that.)

I was an intern biochemist in a hospital I won't name but I have to say the waiting times make a huge difference. How would they not?

suicide_circus

Have an older relative going through the motions with the hse at the moment. Most are very well meaning people but the levels of inefficiency and incompetence we see daily are breathtaking. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Any time my relative sees anyone, the whole saga has to be gone through again, despite the fact that they have his medical file beside them the size of two phonebooks. The hospital is cleaned once per day by disinterested agency staff, your average shopping centre is cleaner. It's only really when you see first hand the medical facilities and care available in the germanic and scandanavian countries that you realise how badly behind we are in primary, secondary and tertiary care. It's scary.

Turtwig

steddyeddy wrote: »

I was an intern biochemist in a hospital I won't name but I have to say the waiting times make a huge difference. How would they not?

You misunderstand me. Waiting times can indeed make all the difference. However, the order of many waiting lists are rarely if ever determined by who's private and who's not. The order is determined by who is likely to be the most urgent patient.

steddyeddy

Turtwig wrote: »

You misunderstand me. Waiting times can indeed make all the difference. However, the order of many waiting lists are rarely if ever determined by who's private and who's not. The order is determined by who is likely to be the most urgent patient.

Based on that we don't need private healthcare then.

Sociopath2

suicide_circus wrote: »

Have an older relative going through the motions with the hse at the moment. Most are very well meaning people but the levels of inefficiency and incompetence we see daily are breathtaking. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Any time my relative sees anyone, the whole saga has to be gone through again, despite the fact that they have his medical file beside them the size of two phonebooks. The hospital is cleaned once per day by disinterested agency staff, your average shopping centre is cleaner. It's only really when you see first hand the medical facilities and care available in the germanic and scandanavian countries that you realise how badly behind we are in primary, secondary and tertiary care. It's scary.

Your mistake is thinking the health service is run for the benefit of patients. In this country it's run for the benefit of the people who work in it.

steddyeddy

Sociopath2 wrote: »

Your mistake is thinking the health service is run for the benefit of patients. In this country it's run for the benefit of the people who work in it.

This. The HSE is a complete waste of money. We need to tear up whatever agreement is preventing us from getting rid of inefficiencies in the system.

jam_mac_jam

My partner was told that he had a rare and serious form of cancer when he didn't. This was by a clueless junior doctor in a passing comment. Not sit down we have something to tell you. He was in for a month they never found what was wrong with him.

Dozen Wicked Words

steddyeddy wrote: »

This. The HSE is a complete waste of money. We need to tear up whatever agreement is preventing us from getting rid of inefficiencies in the system.

What inefficiency would you start with.

steddyeddy

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

What inefficiency would you start with.

Biochemists hired from agencies for one. Management needs to be reduced drastically. The lab equipment purchased is far too expensive, the fact that the HSE bank books were (and probably still are) incomplete, the huge salaries (hiring consultants from agencies too). We also need lay offs.

REXER

I sense the hands of Mary Harney and a few other former ministers of health in some of the positive responses here. :eek:

The god awful truth is that the HSE health system is something that would be an embarrassment to many a 3rd world hovel. Throw in the meddling of the church and the situation gets really very very scary. :mad:

anncoates

To be fair my child was presented to A and E as an emergency and was prioritized. Plus the care was excellent albeit he had insurance

That's not to say I don't think the system needs urgent overhaul though.

I assume the care is excellent once you can actually somehow get into the system

Muahahaha

Sleepy wrote: »

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.

I agree with this 110%. When it comes to healthcare politically I'm like a communist in the way it should be run, fair and equal access to all. I don't disagree with having private hospitals, they are both necessary and desirable as they often have cutting edge equipment and technologies that the public hospitals can use when required.

But for me private healthcare should mean that you are paying extra for bells and whistles and nothing more. If people want Sky Sports in their carpeted private hospital room with no other patients about then that's fine and they should be allowed to pay for it. But that's the trouble with the Irish system of private healthcare- the main part of the price that people are paying is not for Sky Sports and private rooms- it's just to get access to the dam system. That's what you are paying your €2000 a year to VHI for- to skip the Q.

Our healthcare system is set up and structured in such a way that it scares people into purchasing private health insurance when there should be really no need for the majority of people, except for those who really value a private room and wider choices on the food menu.

So what happens when over two million people are effectively paying to skip the Q ? The other 2.6m Irish citizens are the ones who suffer bad health because they can't get access to the system, it's clogged up with people who have paid to skip the Q and they expect that service. As I outlined in an earlier post I'm not blaming private healthcare policy holders here, it's the system that is rotten to the core and for that you'd have to lay blame full square at the door of Mary Harney who conceived this idea of a two tier health system and then delibritely underfunded the public health sector to scare more people into buying VHI. And so the vicious circle continues and so people like the above posters will suffer trauma far greater than the injuries they initially presented with.

steddyeddy

Agree completely. Private when it comes to education and health care should not mean better. You completely destroy the principal of both when you make a two tier system.

steddyeddy

And I'll tell people why I believe that. I believe 100% that people get what they pay for. I believe if you earned it you are entitled to it 100%. The thing is people
who are born into poorer families cannot avail of private healthcare and education. This is not about an earned privilege it is about inherited privilege and
this is something I cannot fundamentally agree with. Allow private healthcare and education for adults by all means btw. Only then can we be sure it's earned.

[Deleted User]

Waiting 2 years for a referral, got a call about it 5 months ago.
"Hello is this Buttonftw?"
"It is yeah."
"I'm someone from the HSE, I have it down here that you're waiting to see an ENT specialist."
"That's right yeah."
"Well we're just calling around to make sure everyone on the list still wants to be on the list."
"Okay..."
"Do you want to stay on the list."
"Yes..."
"Alright that's fine."
"Any ideas how it's going to be?"
"No we're just updating the waiting list."

Haven't heard anything since.

[Deleted User]

suicide_circus wrote: »

Have an older relative going through the motions with the hse at the moment. Most are very well meaning people but the levels of inefficiency and incompetence we see daily are breathtaking. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Any time my relative sees anyone, the whole saga has to be gone through again, despite the fact that they have his medical file beside them the size of two phonebooks. The hospital is cleaned once per day by disinterested agency staff, your average shopping centre is cleaner. It's only really when you see first hand the medical facilities and care available in the germanic and scandanavian countries that you realise how badly behind we are in primary, secondary and tertiary care. It's scary.

Similar for us, granny hasn't been well on-and-off for a few years. Constantly switching medication then finding out from another doctor she shouldn't because of something else she's on. Getting 3 separate appointments for one thing. It's not just the hospitals either, chemists are useless, rarely having everything needed and when they do the brands and dosages change month-to-month which is annoying for my mother to figure out every month, very unfair to someone in their 80s trying to figure it out alone.

djerk

Was in hospital few years back with a horrible sinus.. Had bad internal bleeding from both ends and was constantly passing out due to low blood pressure etc.. Anyway, took quite a while to figure out what was going on so I had lots of tests done. I was told by my doctor that he suspected crohns disease or ulcerative colitis and was given pamphlets to read about the diseases. I still had more tests to do and was sitting around waiting for specialists to come back after the weekend etc so was basically biding my time in a hospital bed. I finally got to see the endocrinologist at some stage, he swaggers in, pulls the curtains around my bed and proceeds to tell me that he thought I had cancer of some form.. All this without any tests to confirm it.. I put it out of my head because it just didnt feel right to me for some reason, but either way, I was more shocked by his blase diagnosis.

About two years later I was hospitalised again with the same issue and had to have surgery that very night. Post surgery the following day, the nurses dressing my wounds noted how 'deep' my wound was and asked me about my previous 'after care'. I said I hadnt received any after care previously.. She was shocked because apparently I was supposed to have the dressing changed and have the open wound sterilised every single day until it healed by a local nurse.

As others have mentioned, its best to stay in the system when you're in it. During all the above i was asked if i was well enough to go home because the beds were sorely needed.. i agreed to give my bed up for an elderly man who was quite sick, and told to return for an MRI scan in 3 days. As i was now an outpatient, my insurance didnt cover the scan and i had to pay 600euro (iirc) up front for the scan. scandalous more like!

hairyslug

For myself (meningitis) my treatment was perfect, into isolation with 20min of getting to A&E and everything went smooth from there.

For my mother (small cell cancer) unbelievable delays to start chemo and radiotherapy, meeting after meeting of talking about it but nothing happening, now that the treatment has started everything is flawless.

For my father (dementia) he now needs 24hr care, I have had my second meeting with the HSE today about this and we are still no closer to getting this, we are looking at the new year before the HSE can help.

My son (hydrochephus and cavernomas sp) treatment was fantastic and the care he receives on a regular basis from the nuero team in temple st is fantastic.

My son and one of my daughter's have autism, the hse has really disappointed me with there action in regards to this, funding has been removed from the I school, all support services are now non existent, we are being offered one speech and language class a year with the HSE.
The privately funded support available where we live is an another level compared to Dublin where is it run by the HSE

Suppose you have to take the good with the bad

IvaBigWun

hairyslug wrote: »

For myself (meningitis)

Suppose you have to take the good with the bad

No.

Not when you consider how much tax we pay in this country you dont.

EyeSight

Deleted User wrote: »

Waiting 2 years for a referral, got a call about it 5 months ago.
"Hello is this Buttonftw?"
"It is yeah."
"I'm someone from the HSE, I have it down here that you're waiting to see an ENT specialist."
"That's right yeah."
"Well we're just calling around to make sure everyone on the list still wants to be on the list."
"Okay..."
"Do you want to stay on the list."
"Yes..."
"Alright that's fine."
"Any ideas how it's going to be?"
"No we're just updating the waiting list."

Haven't heard anything since.

Try and think about this. It was someones (probably an administrators) task to call everyone on the list to ask this. What possible reason would they have to do this? So they can say "we reduced the waiting list for X by X people". Makes them look good and it's a totally pointless and useless task

suicide_circus

Deleted User wrote: »

Similar for us, granny hasn't been well on-and-off for a few years. Constantly switching medication then finding out from another doctor she shouldn't because of something else she's on. Getting 3 separate appointments for one thing. It's not just the hospitals either, chemists are useless, rarely having everything needed and when they do the brands and dosages change month-to-month which is annoying for my mother to figure out every month, very unfair to someone in their 80s trying to figure it out alone.

If you're an old person with no one to help you or vouch for you in this situation you're fcuked. Scary.

Dozen Wicked Words

suicide_circus wrote: »

If you're an old person with no one to help you or vouch for you in this situation you're fcuked. Scary.

Very true, but this is not unique to Ireland.