Scairbh

Na

gCaorach

EMYVALE

Told Them So!

Back in 2006 we told the policy makers that the Public Health System was heading for collapse but they did not listen. We told them that more and more people would rely on the public health system in the future (or as they would say – ‘going forward’) but they did not listen.

Instead they pandered to the private investor and offered all sorts of incentives for the private industry to build hospitals and dictate the policy. They pandered to those who wanted only to build little empires for themselves using the illness of people. They allowed costs to spiral out of control and they allowed the staffing levels of administration to expand till every manager had a team of assistant managers and each of those with assistant assistant managers yet so many of them were unable to do the work assigned. Now they have to hire in, at huge expense, outside consultants to show the managers how to manage and do the jobs they were employed to do.

All the while the front line services were being starved of resources and staffing. Public hospitals and services became inefficient and, in places, unsafe. How do they solve the problem – they closed the service down as the managers could not manage to recover it without further problems. They did not listen to us when we told them that International evidence did not support the policy of centralising all acute care into what they called ‘Centres of Excellence’ (I don’t hear much mention of Centres of Excellence these days). They paid spin doctors huge salaries to counteract any statements we made and, using an agreeable National media, they bombarded the public into believing that closing these ‘unsafe hospitals’ was the only way to improve the health services in this country. ‘Patient Safety’ was the buzz word for everything they did.

The public at large sat back and allowed this all to happen. There was plenty of money for the middle and upper classes and they were able to afford the cost of Private Health Insurance. They were able to get silver service in the private hospitals and did not have to wait very long to get into the bed. But the Susie Longs of this country did wait and paid for it with their lives. Susie’s family was promised that all would change and that there would be no more deaths because of delays – like all the other promises, it was forgotten about.

What people with Private Insurance seemed to forget was that Private Insurance means nothing when you have an emergency – you just need to get to the nearest hospital as soon as possible but now you find that that hospital is closed for emergencies and you must take you chances and wait for treatment just like the public patient. It is now all about budgets and saving money but patient safety no longer seems important. However there is less money in the country now, there are less jobs, there are less hospital beds, there are fewer nurses and doctors, and your chances of survival have decreased dramatically. Not only that but with all the increases in the cost of the Private Insurance, you cannot afford to have it and you are once again dependent on the Public System – yes the system you sat back and watched disintegrate and fall apart and to be taken from your local hospital. Susie Long’s story will be repeated over and over again in the coming months and years.