THAT is a scary picture

Fool you are Reilly! As a holder of private health insurance, I was recently able to see a consultant within 3 days of seeing my GP! This consultation resulted in a days stay in hospital to perform various tests, which took place exactly one week later! Your policies of placing a huge levy on health insurance is the main reason for the shameful waiting lists! How much longer I can afford to pay my premiums is anyone’s guess! You came to power over a year ago, claiming you were the man to reform the HSE. Raising health insurance premiums by massive amounts doesn’t strike me as the most obvious way to go about reform! So much for the grand plan for universal health insurance!!!

I agree minister it is a disgrace, so what are you going to do about it??

Really outrageous…

Could no longer afford private health insurance so entered public system in November 2010 – between cancellations ,consultant retired ,changed consultant , the latest appointment in the door was for ….. July 2013 . Laugh or cry ??

Who exactly is going to see all these people?

Consultants have multiple clinics per week all booked to capacity and beyond – where is this capacity going to come from?

Reilly hasn’t a clue he is forcing more people into the public health system as its becoming way to expensive to hold private insurance! The man is a disaster !

Wouldnt say he has to wait.

get up off your fat A** Reilly and do something about it you useless moron.

Reilly of course is GP. Perhaps he has a bee in his bonnet about the need for a consultant to ‘rubber stamp’ his diagnoses. As Minister, Reilly has rubber stamped many policies in cabinet that are destroying the fabric of life in the country. The real issue, hidden beneath the heat and bluster, is that the HSE is a SHAMBLES and Ireland does not have anywhere near enough consultants, let alone resources, for a population its size with the health ambitions of an advanced economy. why not develop a plan to triple the number of medical graduates and provide training for them? Goodness knows the demand is there among the young. Instead, a whole load of BS courses in media, culture and archaic language are pushed, nine of which do much for either business or health.

its not that the consultants or clinics are flat out. they are keeping slots for private patients and putting public patients on long waiting lists. i have had back trouble since my first child was born 10 years ago and has gotten much worse since my second child 17mths ago. i was referred in april 11 to a specialist and got appt for apr 12. i rang the specialist sec and if i was willing to pay would have been seen within 2 weeks. same goes for if i need a mri. public waiting list is apprix 10 mths but can get one privately within 3-4days. its an absolute disgrace.paying prsi since i started working 12 years and what is it for??? sweet f##k all. just another way of the gov robbing you

I feel sick reading this article..

i am waiting for radiotherapy following cancer surgery. i had two options, 1) private in vincents , daily trip for 5 weeks starting next tuesday 2) public treatment at st lukes for 5 weeks, ‘live-in’ 5 days a week, home at weekends. i chose st lukes as
a) i live in country, b) i have parkinson’s and daily travel would be impossible.

under public care i am still not on st lukes books for radiotherapy 2 weeks after seeing oncologist. yet had i opted for private i’d be starting on tuesday. i will die in this country…waiting!

the cancer nurse told me it would be unethical to have different treatment policies yet….they have!

roll on next election , or sooner, and vote these finegael shysters out.

Public health care does not work, the government should not run health services and they have proved that they cannot.

We need to private system where the state pays for the treatment of public patients. The current system is broken, shut it down.

Lowry would get to see one in a day!!!

i still think one health package for everybody is a good thing ! and no…if you are rich you can’t skip the que only if you would want to go abroad you can. and yes we need more consultants but also to update the hospitals, to let ppl wait in a former storage room (ennis) between boxes and medical equipment is a disgrase ! their is a lot wrong with the health system, we are also waiting now for three years to see a consultant about kidney failure !….if we ever get to see him. my sister in law needed a consultant for heart problems, she finally went private a good thing or she wouldn’t have been here anymore…..so one package for all, no more private patients,
everybody the same treatment.

The Harney legacy. Thanks Mary.

I too was waiting ages to see a consultant. Then I said “Screw it, I can live without my twenty cigarettes and Sky Plus”, and decided to fork out for health insurance. Now, I don’t have to wait at all when sick before I park my arse in a private bed.

hse brought in a firm to fix my mobiltiy scooter, guess what, ‘dodgy’ batteries put in and they failed to even look at the electrics.
meanwhile its, the scooter is getting a overhaul at my expense.
this will save the scooter being handed back as scrap to be sold on again in the private sector.
maybe the hse should look on how they source their workers and budgeting.
a rollator in Lidl, a bloody good one is exactly half the price of those provided by the hse.
do i sniff bad economics in this?

@ Nuala…what do you mean “they are keeping slots for private patients?”

Get a healthy lifestyle

There are alot of questions that need answers and the full picture is not available. How many people have died while waiting to be seen. Also how many people have had permanent damage done to their health because they cannot get treatment soon enough. I doesn’t make sense, it will cost the system more in the long run. Many consultants are working in public and private hospitals so public clinincs aren’t open every day. My own experiences with waiting lists makes me ask these questions. Nearly 2 years for to see one consultant, then nearly 3 years to see another. For the 2nd one an ENT I was put on the National Treatment Purhase Fund Scheme and ended up going to a private hospital. I was told by that consultant during treatment that it would have to be done quick as the scheme was finishing and he wouldn’t be able to treat me any more. The scheme finished and I couldnt go back for checkup etc. I’m back on the lists again and one is 3 month wait which is very short but the other again ENT god knows how long.

we have a lop-sided health service with over-indulged consultants.
we need a ‘health package’ for all.
we also are down on all professional consultants in every single discipline. – put more consultants in on less pay and share the work around, less overtime, and more will be completed.
we are doing things, in such a barmy way. waiting lists, mean – too few consultants! Or get rid of private health care and continue a limited system of exporting the most urgent as this in the interim to proper care seems about the only thing to do really.