Liam Doran (INO- not a happy camper!
Headlines
Work-to-Rule Dispute continues.
Nurses today stopped working from 11 am until 12 am. In Beaumount hospital alone, 26 outpatients scheduled for treatment were told to stay at home.
Doctors Dispute
The dispute between doctors and the HSE this week continued as Mary Harney announced that she would advertise new positions while the consultants were still negotiating their terms.
Hiccup in private hospital plans.
There has been a delay in the Health Service Executive’s plan to sign contracts with developers for the construction of private hospital facilities on eight existing public hospital sites.
Irish Nursing Homes still not up to scratch.
The new president of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr. Paula Givarry has criticised the government for failing to establish more nursing home inspection teams.
Harney to consider helping people reproduce.
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney has said that she will look into providing some form of state funding for couples using IVF to conceive.
Professional misconduct among nurses.
Reports say that An Bord Altranais had to rule on 18 fitness-to-practice cases last year alone.
Work-to-Rule Dispute continues.
Nurses today stopped working from 11 am until 12 am. In Beaumount hospital alone, 26 outpatients scheduled for treatment were told to stay at home.
The step-up in industrial action comes on the twelfth day of the dispute and is due in part, to threats that the nurses will have their pay docked for the time they participated in work-to-rule actions.
Hospitals are starting to feel the strain of the dispute although most report to be functioning relatively well considering the circumstances.
However there are a few that have encountered difficulty. Waterford Regional Hospital is cancelling non-elective surgery every day and Beaumount Hospital will have to cancel several operations in the coming days.
Although it was reported during the week that both sides were willing to talk, there has been little evidence of any compromise reached
Views on the debate are shifting and it remains to be seen whether the nurses will carryout their threat to use their votes to hit back at the government in the upcoming elections.
Doctors Dispute
The dispute between doctors and the HSE this week continued as Mary Harney announced that she would advertise new positions while the consultants were still negotiating their terms.
The IMO Director of Industrial Relations, Fintan Hourihan condemned the move as “highly provocative” and instructed consultants not to take up the positions. He said that to do so, would be largely to the detriment of the negotiations and also their working conditions.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association had a similar response, saying that they would advise members to boycott the negotiation process if the Minister went ahead with her plan.
Mr. Hourihan expressed concerns Harney was using the situation for her own political gain and did not have the best interests of the consultants or the patients in mind.
Hiccup in private hospital plans.
There has been a delay in the Health Service Executive’s plan to sign contracts with developers for the construction of private hospital facilities on eight existing public hospital sites.
According to the HSE however, this is not really a problem and only occurred because the process by which they chose developers for the job is new and has encountered some minor hiccups.
They say that the extensions, which will provide the health service with an extra 1,000 beds will still go ahead.
The opposition however, are opposed to the idea of the government footing the bill for private hospitals and say that if in power in the next few weeks, they will put an end to the venture
Personal note- Why is the government paying for private hospitals?? Why not foot the bill for some public facilities instead? Clearly they’re more badly needed and would benefit a lot more people. Sometimes I think that they forget whose money they’re spending. The taxes of those reliant on the PUBLIC health system are going to help those in the PRIVATE health system?! What’ s that about
Irish Nursing Homes still not up to scratch.
The new president of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr. Paula Givarry has criticised the government for failing to establish more nursing home inspection teams.
The HSE report last year placed huge stress on the importance of putting in place the proper measures to ensure that our elderly are better looked after.
However, it seems that nothing has been done in the last year and there is still only one full time inspection team in operation.
In response to the complaints, the HSE said that they were setting up dedicated groups to tackle the issue but that people had to be removed from their present jobs to do so. This, they claim, is slowing the process down.
Personal Note- It’s funny how we Irish get so hot-headed and driven when some kind of scandal is revealed. Like after that documentary was made about the state of nursing homes, it was in the news all the time and there was outrage but sure, this must have been an issue before and no-one said anything and it’s long since been forgotten. Publicly we want to improve our health system but laziness seems to be slowing us down a lot.
Harney to consider helping people reproduce.
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney has said that she will look into providing some form of state funding for couples using IVF to conceive.
The treatment costs about €4,000 and so, is beyond the reach of so many people.
However she was quite vague and made no promises merely stating that her department were going to investigate the costs and feasibility of the idea.
- <!–[endif]–>funny how issues that are ignored for so long manage to get aired around this time in the political calendar isn’t it?
Professional misconduct among nurses.
Reports say that An Bord Altranais had to rule on 18 fitness-to-practice cases last year alone.
The board suspended six nurses and struck them off the nurses register on the grounds that they had breached conduct. This is the highest figure they have dealt with yet.
Reasons for complaints included mistreatment of patients to inappropriate use of the internet to theft of drugs and forging prescriptions.
April 25, 2007 at 10:48 am
Hiccup in Private Hospital Plans
I agree with your comment on this. However, I think if Mary Harney wants to progress with this way of ‘fixing’ our Health Service then she should be clearer as to to ‘why’ co-location of private hospitals on public sites could be the answer. For example, it’s obvious that these new private hospitals will attract staff away from our already crumbling public health service into the private sector – what the hell is Mary Harney thinking?
April 26, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Im really not sure, Fine Gael are promising a huge amount (not sure but i think its 2,600) of new beds if they are elected. She promises to move public patients to private wings if A&E gets too crowded but what i would like to know is what her definition of “too long a wait” is. One day? Two days? And how long do they get to STAY in those beds for? Until a private patient comes along?? Would it not be better to put in public beds that can be used by EVERYONE?
She looks dead set on chasing consultants out of the public system. This new dispute is only evidence of that- shes stone-walling them rather than dealing with the issues at hand. WHY are all our well-trained doctors and nurses leaving and HOW can we fix it? Why do we pay taxes to train professionals to the highest level just so that Australians and Americans can get the benefit? Something has to be done- perhaps some contract they enter into when they get free education that they will serve a certain amount of time in Irish hospitals in return.