I feel the country is heading for third world status. I and many of my colleagues feel that at present, there is no political party capable of of bringing the country forward. We need "new Blood" Candidates from a strong business/corporate background. The deadwood and gravy train hangers on need to be ousted..........

Agreed. We are heading for a country where we do not live, but merely exist. Why should the majority work to fund a)the lower class bracket who will not work and b) the other end of the pole i.e. fat cats who make ridiculous mistakes?

You can change all you want it will make no difference (take a look at the financial situation re health in other contries it is all the same). The only difference will come when the gov. looks to alternative health to solve some of the health issues. Do you really think the drug companies & and many doctors want an inexpensive solution

Hi Lou,

Thank you for your response. I see the Goverment are trying to fund the shortfall in taxes by now introducing a "Mini Budget" laughable if not so desperate!!

I know, it would be laughable if it wasnt so despicable! It's just impossible in this country.

"I feel the country is heading for third world status. "

Hum why not try living in a third world country and then come back and tell me that.

Change of gov would equal no change in my opinion, same crap different party. All very fine for opposition to live in dream land with their "I'd change this, promise you that"............ Where would the funds appear from??? Hand it to Brian Cowen when in fairness he did point those very facts out to Enda Kenny. Personally I spend a lot of time thinking up ways to change things, have I the funds? Rhetorical question. My main fear is changing AED's to cheap generic brands, not just crazy but DANGEROUS. Regarding the irish health system, look folks, things could be a lot worse when you consider how the U.S. have/have not system works, or the crazy NHS postcode defining your qualification for health care, medication etc. Just tryin to find a bright side because it's all that keeps me sane I'm get so disillusioned with our own system what with 10 years (and prob another 10) going around in ever decreasing circles.

F.A.O. Thrashback, 3rd world status? Obviously not a child of 70's and 80's! If you were then I'd like to have lived on your cloud!

Agreed. The problems that exist in our economy are there for reasons that date back further. I do not believe that the current strategies proposed or implemented by our government are the best possible routes to bringing the country back, but they are working with a problem that was there pre-election. I feel sorry for Brian Cowen in a way because when he took position the state of the economy was already questionable, and now it seems he is an easy target for blame. Dont get me wrong I am not a particular fan, but I think maybe people are seeing him as an easy target to place the blame on, when in actual fact the recession is not his doing. He was handed a "bad" set of ingredients to work with, and there is only so much one can do with nothing.

I implied we are heading for third world status, not living in one - as yet............

The thing that really gets to me is the very critical state of our Health System. It now seems no one is capable of sorting it out. Mary Harney is still in situ, despite of all the catastrophies in our hospitals and health sesrvice over the last number of years. However I think our nurses and doctors are absolutely brilliant and do a bloody good job ,given the prevailing circumstances.

FAO SAB

I am actually a child of the 70's. But there is very little chance that a country with such an infrastucture and so much money invested in it can return to how it was ....a country with nothing. And by the way, a third world country is defined as one with under developed or developing across a wide range of categories. Health service is just one of them and let me tell you, our health service is a hell of a lot better than even any second world countries I've seen.

I think maybe the last 20 years have been so extraordinary, what with people generally having it so easy that they must have forgotten what it was like to deal with a small amount of hardship. If Ireland goes back to how it was in the 70's and 80's then the whole world will go that way I reckon and Capitalism will compeltely collapse. You have to remember that Ireland was an under-developed country at that stage because some years previous it was, after all, a colony of the U.K.. So in times gone past it was only finding its feet and growing its economy. Now the changes have been made.

Thrashattack,

I have to say I admire your spirit and optimism AND I certainly hope for all our sakes you are proved right!!

There is a quote that says, "unhappy the land in need of heroes that has none".

That is Ireland today. Is there anyone of right mind in the country who truly believes swopping one group of reality removed politicans for another will improve anything, let alone the health service ?

I agree the health service would benefit from utilising the experience and drive of private sector individuals. People who are used to constantly reviewing a business to see where procedures can be simplified to improve performance & funds can be utilised more efficently to achieve necessary goals.

With the dole queque heading towards 500,000 by the end of the year, how many more of us will need to rely on the public health system as private healthcare will be beyond our reach. It's time for those idiots still sitting in the Dail to attempt to do something right and adopt some radical thinking other than just hiking up taxes again on a depleted workforce.

As a person working in the health sector i think the big issue is a lack of leadership. Certainly we need a new Minister of Health however the current managerial setup in the HSE is not very organised. There are many initiatives currently ongoing to reduce spending however with more people now on the dole and in receipt of medical cards etc the health budget is being stretched beyond its capabilities.

I agree with much of what you say Sab with regard to the health service being at least better than the U.S. or the NHS system but to be honest I am afriad that it is heading that way. I was a child of the 70's Thashertack but I've also had medicalcare in Turkey 20 years ago and in South Africa 10 years ago and both were superior to what you would experience in an Irish public hospital today. With regard to things being "extraordinary" in the last 20 years and so people not being able ot deal with small hardships, one thing which did not exist 20 years ago is a house price at over 10 times the average industrial wage. For those whom the boom era by-passed, ths in one hardship they have to deal with and pay for

As a healthcare worker I see patients every day, I carry out important diagnostic investigations that are part of the patients diagnosis and treatment therefore I am front line staff. Now within a department of 14 staff we have 3 managers! Need I say more. This is one small/medium size unit in one hospital. Beyond this there are managers of managers of managers. I know that we need admin staff and grades of healthcare professionals that do not deal directly in front line patient care but do we need so many. No! The HSE needs a review of every position that is not directly involved in providing patient care and for admin everyone above grade IV clerical, then we need to remove the dead wood. But it wont happen because front line staff are easier to get rid of. There should be no need for reducing patient services in the recession if only we made the savings where they count.

As for wastage heres on for you - if you break your leg you get crutches however these are now single use items and so get dumped after you use them same goes for a lot of similar devices - have we actually lost our marbles. there is literally no infection risk from these items but we still throw them out, the cost is phenominal. A sharps bin must now be disposed of every 2 weeks regardless of whether it is full or not. Every hot tap and shower in every hospital must be run for five minutes every single day - cost of heating water well just look at your own heating bills.

We have to stop this now, B. Drum and friends have brought nothing but added expenses, reports, pointless so called infection control policies where simple cleaning would be more effective. Two weeks ago people marched at the introduction of the pension levy, I have to be honest and say if that is all we are landed with I will take it. We should be marching to get rid of HSE managment. As for cowen and gang I dont like it but they are reacting in what I feel are the best interests of the country before we have no country left. ( I am not a supporter of FF)

I so agree with the last post. I recently was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy at Tallaght Hospital.  The care I got there was first class and but for the diligence of the team my cancer would have been missed.   I feel I owe them a lot and could not belive it when I heard the Government was closing the breast cancer unit there and moving everything to an already overcrowded St. Vincents.  The closure is planned and yet the extra beds and new services are not in place yet?  I wrote a few letters to try to find out if this was really happening and stressing my concerns.

My first letter was directly to the Taoiseagh's office - I got a reply saying it was nothing to do with him and they were passing my query to the minister for Health. 

Mary Harney's office replied that it was nothing to do with her office and they would pass the query to the HSE. 

Weeks later I got a letter from the HSE stating that they were not in fact responsible for these decisions and they were passing my query to the Health Information and Quality Authority (first I ever heard of them)

I finally did get a letter acknowledging receipt of my query and  to quote "I NOTE YOUR CONCERNS IN RELATION TO THE PAY STATION IN THE MID-WESTERN REGIONAL HOSPITAL IN LIMERICK".   Unbelievable all this correspondence and they wrote to me about something completely unknown to me, obviously a complete mix up.

There are so many managers of manager etc. that noone really knows whats happening or is taking any responsibility.   This seems such a waste of our funds and the goverments answer to the health budget is to close more beds.   It's criminal...

I do understand the concept of the Centers of Excellence as regards Cancer treatment but I feel that Tallaght is a relatively new hospital, has everything in place, has a very efficient triple assessment setup already and it works.  Its just a PR exercise for the Government to make the public think they are improving things when in fact they are just moving everything around, incurring more unnecessary expense, and possibly making things worse.

Now they are proposing to build new maternity hospitals.  These hospitals are under pressure yes but they are up and running and working.  Now is not the time to be wasting more money paying architects etc. to draw up plans and proposals to build new hospitals that we can't afford to build.

Get the health services back to basic.  Let the medical staff do their jobs and get rid of all these executives, adviser etc.   They are only clogging up the system, wasting money, and are really doing nothing to improve the situation.

Sorry for the rant but it makes me so angry... the health budgets should be spent on actual health care!!!

A change of government is a must. but if the people don't get together as a collective and make the changes happen, they won't happen.

of course there's a class system in place and there are social divides, people who are earning € 300,000 + per year are at the top end of the system. do you think any of them actually care what happens to the rest of us.

A. they can afford to pay for the best treatment.

B. they are part of an elite social/political old boys club and are well versed and well minded. the current system is designed by them, to benefit them and their rich buddies.

the term is " CANNON FODDER " folks. that's what the worker is.

but you know, it's no good walking around crying about wanting change if your not gonna get off your butts and implement change.

the private and public sectors have been set against one another by the government, on purpose because it knows if they all raly together against it, it's in trouble.

has anyone watched a bug's life ? the ants and the grasshoppers. we're the ants.

the only thing that instigates change is effort. make the effort push for change.

this government is a shambles, what is goin on belies logic, but they are good at the spin which kepps ya focused on sometehing else.

HSE needs a good clear out, if they can't do the job, get rid of them.

WE NEED CHANGE.

Well said......

I have just read your post and completely agree. There is no good just talking about it, we need to be pro-active mainly by forming a NEW Political Party, a party outside the current mould. It must be a party as radical as what brought about the Republic and Nation that once had its own self respect and the respect of others.

You are right Sammi.... Any ideas on what an ordinary person can do.... I've written a number of letter etc. with a laughable response..... How can we progress from here to make changes happen?

Well to be honest I don't know how one ousts a government.

It happened in england didn't it, they got rid of John Major. Then the government lost out to labour. Don't fancy labour though, I guess maybe Fianna Gael look like they could do a better job. At least they are making an argument.

There needs to be a tough bunch of old school no nonsense fella's to get this country back on track. One voted by the people, for the people and where the people have a say in it.

There has to be a way.

Surely if the government was replaced with a new party, a new government, the old system could then be replaced, and with it all those big fat salaries for the HSE, bankers and consultants.

If there anybody out there with the political and legal knowledge of how to work the system that were willing to give direction it would be great.

Now is the chance to make a name for yourself.

Nobody seems to relish a challenge these days or a bit of fight.

Where's Gordon Ramsey, ha ha, could ya imagine him in the dail giving it to them.

I think the first thing is to start a thread off where all the people can come together as one voice. Maybe on boards.ie If enough people were willing to put the time and effort in I think things would have to change.

Everybody needs to put out enough posting's everywhere to join the people together as one and start a campaign.

Who's up for the challenge?

Does any one know how to start up a website that would work.

I think its all very sad, too many people pulling in different directions. Too many bad ill thoughtout ideas being implemented. A service based economy does not work, look at anything from Farming to getting a house built, you have so many people grabbing money for so many dreamed up needs. there is no money left to work with and people are giving up. Back to basics, lose the red tape, let common sense be the driving force, not a pile of desk jockeys. The old storeman syndrome is alive and well in todays Ireland, sorry you cant have that its the last one on the shelf, so the nightmare continues, unless you belong to the ruling clases where you can buy your way out of trouble.

tcmmcm

your so right. people got carried away with themselves and lost all logic and reason and comon sense in the process.

yeah we all love money and we all want to make as nuch as we can, but there are NO MORALS. peopl have gotten so money hungry and greedy that they let themselves be led in one of the biggest cons by a chosen few and now we are all ruined as a result.

have you read the post quoting what the consultant Mr O Keefe said about hse, it's so true

a health service that doen't care one bit about the people it's suppposed to look after. i sent an email to Mary harney's office - and i haven't even received a reply acknowledging it.

( my husband was recently treated in an appalling fashion, it's posted under the hse bonuses)

Sammi,

I wouldn't hold my breath for a reply from Mary Harney's office... Not one that makes any sense anyway. After 4 letters to Taoiseach's office, Mary Harney's office, HSE and another branch of the HSE called HSAE or something like that I eventually got a reply saying "someone from the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick would be in touch with me shortly regardng my query" but my query was in relation to the breast cancer unit at Tallaght Hospital. I've never even seen the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick so thats the level of competency that is in charge of our health system.

Hi Aileen

Did you contact the Irish Patients Association with your complaint or your TD (one that's in opposition to the government)?

there needs to be a system in place where all of the people can come together and barrage them with all the complaints.

i keep saying it but nobody seems to know how.

If thousands took to the streets like the french, they would have to listen.