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LAST WEEK, PRODUCERS put the call out for participants for the forthcoming Irish version of First Dates.
And the nation collectively rejoiced.
So, is that enthusiasm translating into applications? Apparently so, as First Dates producers say that 2,500 brave Irish souls have applied so far.
Impressive!
But there’s a slight catch.
Producers say they have received way more applications from the fairer sex and are currently desperate for more Irish lads to apply.
Of course, Irish women are applying in their droves, so the First Dates casting team would love to hear from some more Irish gentlemen who might be looking for a bit of romance.
Translation: “We don’t have nearly enough lads for all these gals.”
Producers say that they have received applications from singletons across the country and are still encouraging people to apply, whether they’re young or old, single or gay.
Come on, lads of Ireland!
Take a leaf out of Adorably Awkward Lad’s book.
Who knows? You might get a shift out of it.
Interested? Apply here.
Written by Amy O’Connor and posted on DailyEdge.ie
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How about the elephant in the room. The HSE is 90% admin staff with frontline workers under serious pressure with little or no resources.
Fine Gael, Always a report away from taking any action.
f you really want to see an exodus of Doctors and the Health Service collapse completely, elect SF and have them implement their plan for a new 60% top rate of Income Tax, as well as wealth taxes.
Barry. Who has been in government since the foundation of the state? Fg, ff, labour. Who has destroyed the country financially and social? Ff, fg, labour. Who is in charge for the last 5 years? Fg and labour. It’s not as if its glorious with any of these. Who has been in charge of a shambolic health service now for 5 years? Fg and labour.
@ littleone I have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that SF would solve any of the above. Increasing Employer PRSI will destroy the recovery. It will cost jobs. Increasing our already high taxes to 60% or above will lead to a flight of capital and expertise that will dwarf previous emigration. And worst of all is their plan to get rid of the only wealth tax we have – LPT – only to replace it with a slightly different wealth tax. Populist nonsense. I just don’t trust them economically. Social Democrats would be a much better choice.
Barry and leaving this government will destroy this country only more. It’s rife with cronyism and corruption. Quangos, inquiry’s, scandals, incompetence. They will privatise and sell anything not nailed down. Time for change whoever that may be as long as its not ff, fg labour. They have been in government and have shown what they are about and it has not been a pretty sight.
There has been no recovery Barry. And stop scaremongering mate. Saying SF will destroy the country is hilarious as all successive right wong governments have actually destroyed it.
@ Gearoid
No recovery? That is simply untrue.
It may not be as deep or as widespread as we’d like it to be but -
Unemployment down from 15.1% to 9.3%. More needed but a 40% reduction.
Growth of 6% plus in both GDP and GNP in 2014.
The income tax take is up from 11.2 billion in 2011 to 17.3 billion in 2014, and still rising.
House prices recovering, exports rising, consumer spending increased, business confidence restored, bond yields down, cost of borrowing decreased – the list is endless.
There is a lot to give out about in respect of this government – transparency, KPMG investigating themselves, tall tales etc – but denying basic facts is ludicrous.
Barry all of these things would have happened no matter who was in government. Things were only going to get better. That’s what happens after a recession , you have the recovery. It’s down to businesses and people that jobs were created not government. House prices are still going down in parts of the country. Unemployment is still high in parts of the country. The things they were in charge of are worse now. Health. Homelessness. Poverty. Disabilities services . elderly. Sick. The list goes on. Please tell us what are the tall tales you speak of?
Sorry Barry but your just regurgitating manipulated figures from government bodies,The People on the street are paying trough the nose in tax because of this government,They even taxed water in one of the wettest places on the planet.
@ Littleone
So you agree there has been a recovery then, at least.
As you point out, there is a lot, lot, lot more to do but if you want to vote left, Catherine Murphy and Social Democrats are a far better choice than SF.
Barry I agree that there has been a recovery of sorts. But the recovery is not everywhere. It’s still pretty dire for a lot of people. But don’t pretend that it’s because of this government. It’s not. It’s because the world economy improved. Look at the real issues in this country under this government. They are worse now. Health . homeless crisis. List goes on . they have made things worse not better for an awful lot of people. Step out of the cities , look at the recovery , house prices , a&e closed. It’s not there.
@ littleone
I agree that this government has been a huge disappointment but the way forward economically is not SF.
I support SF on their Pro Traveller stance, their Pro immigration stance and Pro MarRef stance. But, in my opinion, economically they would be a disaster.
@ Enda Ireland
I can’t post more than one link here but every figure I have quoted is fully and independently verifiable from an independent state body or non Irish source. Every one. Please tell me which figure you think I am lying about. I will post independent proof on it.
Unemployment is actually now 8.9%.
Link -http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/unemployment-down-at-9-1-in-q3-1.2433196
I don’t care who you think should get the credit for this – this is brilliant brilliant news for Irish people.
Yes but the current outlook is not real news by any measure, ie un-employment down through massive emigration and yet 2 billion a year is spent on the IDA and Enterprise Ireland subsidizing jobs etc. And any growth is down to exchange rates and multinational maneuvering – not any Gov policy. With a base inflation rate hovering around 1-2% you will always see economic growth at 1-2% at some point. When we see economic growth beyond that it’s because the figures were also massively retrenched so we’ll experience a ‘fit and a rash’ of growth from a low start figure which always ‘looks good’. Jez the ‘sound bite’ majority will have us all dammed before we know it.
@ Martin
“ie un-employment down through massive emigration”
Not true. Net migration in the year to April 2015 was down to 11,600 and falling rapidly. It is expected to be zero by year end.
http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/pme/populationandmigrationestimatesapril2015/
The fact is unemployment is mainly down as employment is massively up (by 60,000) in the year to Sept 2015.
http://www.cso.ie/multiquicktables/quickTables.aspx?id=qnq14
Also, multinationals do not account for a large part of employment in Ireland. It is, in common with the rest of the world, indigenous SMEs that drive employment.
And massive growth does not automatically follow retrenchment, as Greece have clearly demonstrated.
It is flat out untrue to claim that Gov policy does not influence this. Just look at Syriza.
Disastrous for you cos U re not a socialist
Barry, so starting from 450,000 unemployed, it’s government employment policy that has it where its today, – er no? Yes net migration and of course that percentage is going to slow further, when there is no more youngsters to go. Don’t forget our aging population is getting substantially greater. Talking of Syriza, what the hell do have they to do with the Irish Dynamic. When talking of percentage growth stats you have to be mindful of what those figures they really mean. (great for soundbites) For example an amount that represents 6% of a 100, will always look better than that same amount as a percentage of 200. The illusion of massive growth comes when looking at the Irish economy back in 2007 relative to where we are today, that percentage growth is meaningless as apposed to what was economically lost overall. Technically we are ‘doing well’ in a big hole.
As for the multinational, shifting massive amounts of money , when has this not effected our economic figures. Would be rather a silly plan to invite them in if it didn’t. Yes SME’s do drive employment more sustain-ably, have one myself, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with what yarns these idiots in government feed me with – go vote for some sharper tools in the box.
Resign leo. Your hopeless. The fix is having the b,lls to tackle the mismanagement. But you won’t upset the applecart because that would be bad for leo. After all its all about leo. Spends more time talking about things that don’t concern health.
5 years now leo fg and labour in charge , 5 years and its gotten worse.
If he tried to do that and the staff went on strike you’d be calling for him to resign then too. Politicians need to grasp the nettle but the electorate needs to be more mature in balancing expectations, costs and the impact of change.
When did the management of the HSE go on strike??????
So le naipin noir. Leo is afraid to tackle the mismanagement in case their is a strike. Is that what you are claiming. And the electorate needs to be more mature in balancing expectations really? How about the electorate having a decent health service , properly managed with people capable of doing the job. How about the electorate having paid taxes all their lives having a bit of dignity and not left lying on a trolley when they are sick . is that too much to expect? No
Sorry, I bow to your anecdotal evidence and hyperbolic analysis. I’m sure all the previous ministers could have fixed everything by sacking a few managers but just didn’t out of badness. Nevermind though, I’m sure it will all be sorted by appointing another luckless politician who probably doesn’t want the job to begin with.
Well if its hyperbolic analysis in your head to think that if someone is not doing the job, is not capable of the job , then they should not be in the job. But hey in your head let’s keep the mismanagement the way it is because sure they are doing fantastic.
The previous ministers let the staffing in the HSE develop into the mess it is today. In trying to deny that the structure of the HSE is problematic, Leo is continuing the tradition.
Cut the fat and feed the frontline.
Do people not realise that there are huge buildings around Ireland eg Stephens hospital,probably hundreds of them..simply crammed with well paid anonymous well dressed HSE managers?
Minister Leo if there was ever hope that the HSE will be reformed it’s sits with you. Spending on and developing new structures is vitally important. Please tackle the inertia and utter refusal of engagement that is MO of some HSE managers and Consultants.
But wasn’t it part of enda’s “contract” to the people of Ireland to fix the health service and not have people waiting on trollies? That was 2011 and still nothing has been done. Why not put somebody in charge of the health service who has experience in the area.
Watching Leo comment on the health service is a bit like watching Richard attenborough narrate, everything is observational.
That works on an extra level too, Stephen, because Richard was an actor, film director, film producer, entrepreneur and politician. Basically everything but a narrator (unlike his brother David), much the same way as Leo is everything but a Health Minister.
Tom Clonan
Tom Clonan got his statistics all wrong and facts all wrong. Is he that desperate to attack the government just so he can get his ass on a Seanad seat ?
Whatever you’re doing Leo is not enough and/or is not working. Stop spinning and sit down and fix it. Maybe you should set up shop in Beaumont A&E with your team? Don’t let them out until they come up with solutions. That should give them and you an incentive!
More excuses, beyond a joke from this fool. He may be there 2 years but his government have had a lot longer and done nothing but cut costs to only now pretend to invest purely for the election
Leo, I have a family member suffering the consequences of a needless 12 months + delay in the diagnosis of a Stage 4 cancer. (One of the doctors recently was decent enough to hold his hands up and admit that should not have happened.)
To be clear, none of us blames doctors or other frontline staff for what has probably reduced the life expectancy of this person. We are confident they have done the best they possibly can, but are put in the dreadful position of having to juggle inadequate resources. A situation that YOU, Leo, and the rest of your government are responsible for.
And we also know that many, many other people needing health services have been similarly (not) treated. Hospital A&E trollies is only the most visible phenomenon.
Had private medical insurance been affordable, we also know the result would have been different. What is YOUR justification Leo for the blatant two tier health service?
I would like to hear that. Not all the drivel, excuses and propagandising for the shocking mismanagement of this country’s economy and continued aquiescence to a plainly dysfunctional wider Eurozone economic and monetary mess.
To put it plainly, the Euro is *fiat* currency – by definition, NEVER supply constrained by the central issuing authorities. That means that as long as *real* resources – raw materials, people to work them – are available, it is purely a matter of political choice whether we buy and apply those resources, to good purpose.
Unemployment in the Eurozone is still running at over 11% (just in under measured ‘official’ figures), mirroring Ireland’s own waste of human resources, a full 7yrs after the Banks’ pyramid lending bust. All of this period under the adminstration of FG’s European partner political group, EPP.
By definition, this has been (and still is) a monumental waste of resources, by political choice and unacceptable ignorance. In Ireland alone, in GDP terms this amounts tro over 30% of GDP* this year alone in real goods and services we could be producing. About €60 billion worth at current levels. More than enough to provide a 5 star health service, and much besides.
Instead, you and your right wing partners have protected and even extended the Capital owning class’ rights to maximise their ownership and rentier control over society, at the expense, health and wellbeing of the majority ordinary citizens.
You and your political and public service partners resonsible should be booted out of office and never allowed to hold any position of public resonsibility again.
*The estimation of forgone economic production/activity is given here, by Professor Bill Mitchell, reporting on his own and other peer reviewed studies for the Eurozone:
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=32350
“The massive Eurozone real income losses continue to mount”
Leo was very quick to respond to Clonan’s article on the Journal published the day before. Glad to see he’s using his time as minister productively writing rebuttals instead of sorting out the hospital beds crisis.
If there was a chanccer of a politician, you are it Leo. Useless…
For me, Leo showed his true colours when he and his colleagues bullied the public sector by adopting a law allowing them to cut wages. Then just months later the scandal with the management of the central remedial clinic broke out, and there was Leo explaining that the director is entitled to her 250,000+ salary because she has a contract.
Hypocrite.
Privatisation, once again is the aim. DOB has already bought the beacon, Reilly has been investing in clinics and nursing homes. Run the public health services down to a point where the people have no faith in them and then promote private facilities, staffed and equipped with public funds to fill the gap. Classic FG/Tory tactic.
Having just come back from 5 years in the UK I can tell you that FG are following the Tories script to a Tee.
Whats wrong with privatization. Ryanair works whereas the state owned Aer Lingus used to be totally affordable etc. All the best companies which provide the best service to their customers are private. The sooner they privatize the health system and make them live in the real world the better. For what its worth Leo appears to be doing a good job within the limitations of the system. Clonan does not have a clue and as stated his article is riddled with inaccuracies, not clear why the Journal used him to write an article.
unaffordable
The Minister is responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in our Health Services – across all sectors – whether he and his Handlers like it or not. High office comes with perks and privilege – but they also come with Responsibility. The Minister & Dept can delegate Authority – but Not Responsibility.
I stand over the Journal Column I wrote. I stand over the figures.
I note that the Minister’s response is riddled with evasions and figures designed to deflect from the central truth of my opinion piece – Health Services are in crisis. Significantly – the Minister makes no reference whatsoever to the phenomenon of workplace bullying in the Health Services. A toxic workplace environment that Minister Varadkar – in high office – is ultimately responsible for.
Go to any Accident and Emergency Department in the country and see the conditions.
Then ask yourself – Who is Responsible?
Minister – You are in office to serve us – You and your Handlers should contemplate on that. Public service ought to be at the heart of every act and utterance you make. You enjoy great power – take the responsibility that goes with it. Shooting the messenger will not avert the foreseeable, predictable crisis that confronts our Emergency Departments this Winter
Generic response that contains no real content and aims only to turn the mob and their pitchforks against the minister.
Definitely rimming.
You’re taking your life in your hands with your ‘right to reply’ article on here. I really don’t like being personal but……….What is it with you? The health service is turning into a shambles, you were slating James Reilly when you came into office and you’re still slating people. Now Tom Clonan is totally wrong.
I remember when the focus of our health service was on people and their care. That changed when benchmarking became the focus of our effort, meaning medical focus switched from patient care as top priority to management focus. I don’t think anyone could have laid all the blame at your door Minister, but you couldn’t keep your mouth shut from the get go. Everyone else is wrong, the health service, the previous government, reporters, 90 year olds on trollies……you just don’t seem to get it. YOU ARE THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH ITS YOUR JOB, YES YOUR JOB!! TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE PROBLEMS not contribute to them. You seem to spend more time as a political commentator than as a minister, you’re being paid to solve the problems not to create more.
He writes one article and you end up with incoherent rants like the above
Rimming, Karl?
Leo. You lot have had nearly 5 years.
18 months is overnight?……..what a long night in which things have gotten worse. Perhaps Leo if you stuck to your brief instead of trying to be a ‘rock star’ politician on everyone else’s brief….oh yeah….you’re a sound bite pocket stuffer….should have realised you’re no different than the rest.
Leo your useless
You’re
See you got in before the grammar nazis got there first :)
Well he’s right about Clonan’s figures. Clonan had an article on here on the Paris attacks, and another on the IT the following day about the possibility of an attack here. These are areas he has some expertise in.
However, now that he’s running for the Seanad he decides to run another article on health and he clearly made a mess of it with poor standards of research. Not a good sign imo.
Same horse sh|t@ time for change,
Fianna Fail blah blah blah…10 years ago……blah blah blah……….the public are sick of the excuses.
You’re out of your depth Minister. And no amount of fawning Miriam O’Callaghan interviews can alter that fact.
Just admit it. You’re more interested in the chat show circuit then your brief.
Let’s be honest here.
The only thing protecting you from political oblivion is the fact that you’re a gay media luvvie.
If you were a straight man you would have been sacked ages ago.
People’s lives are at stake here. You seem incapable of grasping that fact.
Do the country a favour and resign now.
Put the lives of the sick and the dying before your own career aspirations.
I find it amazing how you can somehow include your homophobia in EVERY comment you make. Why are you so obsessed with gays?
Minister Varadkar’s main policy initiative since becoming Minister of Health was to announce to his media buddy Miriam that he was gay. This now means that the media luvvies have come to the consensus decision that Leo is one of the good guys in government. Meanwhile, the health service which he has been responsible for over the last 18 months continues its chaotic collapse.
I think he wears his gayness like a shield……
His gayness is irrelevant in this context. But it is his gayness that he promotes. So therefore it has become relevant.
He could be promoting anything, his religious beliefs, his private business, his belief in aliens, what matters is he spends more time in self promotion than focussing on his ministry.
If that’s factually incorrect then he has the problem of bad PR. ‘Gay minister’ that’s his public image. That’s how the public see him, not for anything he’s achieved in office.
The LBTG lobby want a Gay Taoiseach, Leo’s their best chance, hence he’s still in office.
Rational people see through the ideological spin and recognise the fact that all Leo has to offer is empty rhetoric.
Obviously you two guys have bought into the ideological angle, hence your myopia when it comes to discussing his failures.
Which leads me to believe there’s actually no point in discussing the matter with you.
You’re blinkered.
So I won’t bother.
Why is this government only keen to be respinsible for good news. I feel embarassed to be an irish citzen whrn I hear the scandals in the Health Service
Health service is a black hole it’s not more money it needs it a complete rethink of how hospitals are run and services provided . Spent a night in a&e this week with a sick 2 year old and luckily we were in and out in 4/5 hours but some people there nearly 7 and still had not seen a doctor . One simple change if the doctors had tablets and could fill in the notes write prescriptions etc while seeing the patient instead of having to go back to the workstation every time to then update . It all just seems antiquated and disorganised with a lack of senior staff and that’s because it’s not a seven day a week health service . If it operated as a seven day a week service ( with senior doctors/consultants working ) instead of Monday to Friday a huge amount of the problems and issues would be solved .
Senior doctors already work 24/7, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. It’s a 7 hour wait because the general public havent a notion of what constitutes an emergency. People coming with aches and pains having taken no painkillers. People coming with problems they’ve had for years and suddenly decided needs to be seen on a Saturday night. People coming with the obvious flu, or a head cold, having taken nothing over the counter. Drunks. Fights. Drunken fights. What constitutes senior? 5 years experience? 10? 20? 100? You’ll be seen by a doctor with at least 2-3 years experience (whereas you have none) first. If you’re actually quite sick then they might have well over 5 or 10 years… Then by a consultant within 24 hours if you’re admitted. Everyone gets afforded the same care. That’s why it takes so long, because doctors and nurses have to see all of the timewasters carefully to make sure they’re not missing anything.
Sure the medical card covers my A and E visit. Happy enough to sit there for a few hours to get my headache seen to.
Darren, the senior doctors are busy doing heart bypass operations, performing emergency brain surgery, kidney transplants.
I know it would stroke your ego to have a professor of pediatrics come and see your 2 year old, but the registrar who saw your child would have a minimum of 11 years training (hardly a “junior” Doctor). If your child had something seriously wrong – the professor would have been called and come in to perform whatever life saving procedure was required. And it doesn’t matter what day that is, it is a 7 day, 24 hour service. It doesn’t make sense to have all the consultants working all night – as they then cannot do the regular daily work – seeing patients in outpatients, looking after in-patients. Even consultants need to sleep.
A few tablet computers won’t do anything to solve the problems of Irish A&E departments. If it were so simple, it would have been solved by now.
He has a point though. I had cancer 8 years ago and get yearly checks. At some point got worrying symptops and my check was 5-6 months away, so I called the hospital. I was told they couldn’t give me an appointment sooner, and told me to go to A&E! Which I did. After waiting for several hours I was forwarded to the same clinic that I usually go to, and adviced to go and see the consultant privately if this happens again. The whole system is a mess.
Same hospital has got rid of the 6 month waiting lists now. They simply tell you you can’t make an appointment, they will call you when they can see you, at some point in the future. Rather ingenious.
Just stop seeing to the drunks then, in the US paramedics will not attend to drunks, they are brought to the police, if alcohol is involved.
Need a hip replacement at 46 years old my insurance say it’s a pre-existing condition and won’t cover it so in the public system, I will have to wait 9 months just to see a consultant then another 2 years to have the operation, sorry with this pain I had to find a quicker route found out about the EU cross border directive so head to Belfast Friday and will have the operation in 5 weeks….why can’t I get it done privately here pay for it then claim back from HSE like I’m doing in Belfast under this scheme??
Maybe politicians should stop trying to fix the fcuking thing!!! Using the health system as a way to score political points and even to help end the careers of politicians has it in the state it’s in!
There is a fix Leo…fire them all and put competent people in actual worthwhile positions.
I’ll I ever hear from Leo is nanny taxes, sugar tax, min Beer price.
Govern our services, not our behaviour, is it any wonder young people are disillusioned with the place
In comparison to our peers we spend a lot less on health, approx 9% gdp versus 11.5%. However when you actually drill into the numbers the staff in our health care system are the highest paid with the highest annual leave entitlement, which is in itself a form of payment. We also have in percentage terms one of the highest level of administration staff when what we actually need are doctors, nurses and beds. Leo knows all this but can’t mention it, or chronic mismanagement, because public sector unions are too strong.
When you drill into the facts – you see that Irish doctors, nurses, physiotherapists are all leaving because of the terrible working conditions.
If the jobs were “the highest paid” – why don’t we see queues of people looking to live the easy life and work in an Irish hospital?? Why are all the Irish leaving? Why are no Europeans, Australians, Americans queuing up for these luxury jobs??? Why are hundreds of consultant positions unfilled- with not one applicant for many job advertisements??
Setting it up for privatisation there, eh Leo!!
In other words, I am incapable of any better.
So you failed at your job?
Most people resign (get pushed) if they have failed so spectacularly.
Such utter tripe of an reply Leo. Go visit some random A&Es unannounced. At peak Times. Get the real picture. By the way, recovery is only happening for the select few, not the general population of Ireland. Yee political “out of touch with real Ireland” yokes can keep saying that until the cows come home, but jobscam-slavelabour, zero hour contracts, mass emigration have done more to reduce the unemployment numbers than any policy of this feeble government. Head in the clouds Leo. As this good man said- the disaster this winter is inevitable in the hospitals with your way of thinking. Recovery- what recovery? Do you know how many homeless people sleeping on the streets I walk past every morning on the way to work every day? A LOT, few years ago it was zero. There is your precious recovery Leo
The minister writes well, constructs an argument well and even apologises with some grace. However the truth evasion continues, our health system is poorly systemically constructed and can only fail. He is putting plaster on it and probably hopes to escape unhurt. Does he add private health spending onto his points on spend i doubt it, similar high tax countries like our deliver more, perhaps he should reveal the average reward the top 100 consultants take from both private and public work,, it may shock people as it may top 100m. How can a hospital manager earning 140k manage these people, its impossible.
Whatever way I looked at the pic I saw a young Dessie O’Malley
Implement your own departure and let someone who cares have a go.
kenny must be delighted, he’s achieved exactly what he set out to do, ruin Leo’s credibility
Leo is a woeful Spoofer, he has spent the past five years as a minister mostly talking about what other Ministers might have said. He also wants to be Taoiseach , according to himself. He isjust stumbling along now until the Election. If they get back into power he will get a new portfolio and continue his auld bullsh.t . We need to change this system and get Business Men as Ministers , people who take no prisoners and get the job done yesterday. The heads of Departments, – Civil Servants–, who know nothing about getting the job done, have far too much power. That has been the way since the foundation of the State. Get rid of about two thousand pen pushers in the HSE and the County Councils around Ireland, and make the remainder work eight hours , and I mean eight hours per day, and give a proper service. The people must remember that the are the servants of the public, not their Masters.
Ditch those antiquated public and health service contracts. Ditch the sick leave madness. Cull those not making an impact. Ditch the need for agency staff and replace with on-call part time staff at basic hourly rates.
Overnight fix? You have had five years and things have only gotten worse! Why should anyone trust you when you wasted five years not making one bit of difference?
The number of the doctors on the register bears no resemblance to the numbers of doctors actually working in Ireland. It is disingenuous to use this as a marker of some sort of success of this government.
Doctors pay to remain on the register in ireland, even when working overseas, because they hope they might return if working conditions improved. They stay on the register because it is a bureaucratic nightmare to put your name back on the register once you have removed it.
The numbers of doctors on the register will start to fall once all those doctors who have moved abroad have families, and their children are settled in school, in the UK, Canada, Australia. Give it a few years, they will loose hope at the healthcare system in Ireland, then the numbers will fall.
Hi Leo – good solid article. Agree with many points therein. However your stats from Medical council re exit rate of docs are dubious. Medical council uses some really poor surrogates to measure the exit rates and are difficult to get accurate info from. Currently there are over 90 emergency medicine docs in Australasia that could be in the system at home. Migration trends have been changing and many of these docs will stay away forever. I am in the middle of a large survey of Irish & Australian docs re emigration, it will make for chilling reading. These attitudes need to be taken into account or a generation of EM docs will be lost.
Leo, I’m currently in Indonesia – a third world country. I recently had to go to hospital in Yogyakarta, a city with a population of 3.4 million. I was through A&E; given a bed, examination, blood tests, treatment, administration, prescription, and out the other end in 2hrs. Might I add that this was the main hospital in the city, not a clinic. I’ve had the unfortunate task of having to go to A&E in Dublin and one time I had to ask a friend to bring me a sleeping bag so I could camp out in the waiting room for what turned out to be 10hrs. The A&E dept in Yogyakarta didn’t even have a waiting room. This report, that I’m sure yourself and your advisors spent a lot of time and money conjouring up, is whitewash over the stinking, festering pile of unneeded, wastrel administration and managerial incompetence. At the heart of this mass is a gelatinous, cancerous tumour that is sucking the life out of everything that’s attached to it and it’s called the HSE. If you really want to reform the health service then clean house, start from scratch. Delete the HSE
My father was in VHI for well over forty years. He had enjoyed good health so as the premiums continued to rise he eventually decided to stop his private health care payments and throw himself at the mercy of the HSE.
He consequently went on to suffer several massive heart attacks and has had a defibrillator fitted. All this was through public health and the care was exemplary. Those terrifying times when he had heart attacks at home the ambulance was mercifully prompt and just wonderful. This despite living in a region where the local hospital has closed apart from a skeleton A&E service that caters for minor injuries and sprains.
I’ve heard the horror stories and shuddered thinking ‘That could have been my father’, and yes there is a lot more to do. But I believe Minister Varadkar is a man who can certainly make much headway in improving and enhancing the health service as it stands.
It’s easy to be the hurler on the ditch, to criticise & throw insults without offering any thought of how we can improve.
Leo, give it up already. No-one is falling for your waffle.
“As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.”
You’re barking up the wrong tree completely Carl!
Wonder what it will take for people to really wake up
I’m fully conscious Eileen, thank you for your concern!
If there was an overnight fix for the health service, he’d scratch his arse and think about for five years, then scrap it.
Tom clonan and Leo Varadkar…2 geezers out of their depth and commenting on subjects they have no clue about.
Thank god we have you
Easy solution—fire those not delivering front line services, then rehire essential secretarial staff.
Dr. Do-little needs a quick fix – a brain transplant. To compare him to a rabbit in headlights would be unfair to the rabbit. There must be something he can do right- resign!
Leo Vardaker you need to grow up U re like a child fighting in the schoolyard blaming the the less able child . FfF implemented those policies and U prolonged them because U re so spineless & couldn’t implement your own policies that would’ve meant bein radical no better to blame FF rather than take responsibility while the country falls apart. U set a really bad example to the younger generations. U re just copying what the Tories are doing in England.
Economics 101; two things you never cut back on that’s health and education.
RyanMed : fly you out to efficient, effective, fair health service. Fly you home same day. €13 billion on offer.
To fix the irish health system would be easy. Stop workplace bullying , this would enable staff to stay in their workplace.
Stop abuse of staff by patients, family members, managers.
Build more nursing homes and make nursing homes easier to access. This will ease up acute beds in hospitals.
Invest in improving staff morale so foreign workers would like to come to work in Ireland. Everyone who works in an Irish hospital have friends who work in foreign hospitals.
Invest in compulsory health insurance. Use successful examples in other countries as templets.
Ensure consequences for actions i.e. as Fine Gael has been in power , it is their responsibillity for the mess of our health system . They should not be re elected.
If staff make errors due to high workload, it should be looked at who gave the staff such high workload i.e. managers and they too should be held legaly responsible i.e. fines , jail time.
Ensure safety at all times . If a department cannot operate due to unsafe working conditions they should be allowed and encouraged to close. This means that if appropiate skill mix is not available, or lifting aids are not in proper use , or the patient workload is too high to deliver safe care , the department staff should be allowed to close their department to admissions immediately until this issues are solved. Also, safety assessments should occur every 4 hours in every department with their results immediately effected.
Professional Trade Unions should actually achieve results for their staff and not let their staff work in such horrible work conditions.
Staff should be awarded for using assertive action to enforce safe patient care.
Systems management experts should be called to review and improve how we treat patients.
A new way of thinking is required to deal with a new modern health system.
How about rather than attacking the soft target that is the health minister doctor you grow a set and attack those that really are holding the system to ransom and that is the trade union bosses. I’m all for having trade unions but when they hold a grip the way they do in the health service it is counter productive. Minister after minister gets stuck with the hse portfolio and reach and every term it gets worse and worse. Is it just these politicians are particularly crap at their jobs. One or two maybe…just coincidence that this had been happening for decades now. Stop taking the cheap easy shot and aim it at where the general public need to hear the issue really lies.
Minister ,The problem is your politics ,you and Fine Gael dont believe in public service ,starve the health service of money ,cutbacks year after year and with a increasing population and many more who had to give up their private health care due loss of wages or jobs depending on less funded sources ,Your “bright spark idea ” privatize as much as you can so be market driven rather than public driven .Those that can pay will get medial care those that cant ,waiting lists as they get more and more ill that will cost more in the long run .for the health service and the taxpayers ,Old people afraid of attending A & E. waiting hours to get a trolley or days to get a bed ,Blaming hospitals, staff G.Ps,weather ,winter flu ,everyone and everything accept your polices, your political right wing dogma
I can see TTIP being used to sell it off under the TiSA agreement…
The HSE IS TOP HEAVY WITH ADMINISTRATORS WITH THE BIG BUCKS and pensions in my view.
And we end up with a health system built on the American model…
Oh my holy Moses Leo out spoofing again blame everyone and anyone to distract from his overrated ability
They’re tryin to protect their workers and patients also its what they’re paid to do.
The Government does not want to have universal health care as it represents the rich who benefit from private health care, and who know that desperate people who have hardly any money are sacrificing their day to day meager living expenses to go to private clinics. These clinics are sprouting up all over the country, in case we haven’t noticed and they are not doing that without knowing that private medicine will be the way the country is going. To add to that we have KPMG, that represents big companies, being the people who they ask to compile the health cost report. Some American companies that have been prosecuted in their own country are finding rich pickings here. As long as we accept waiting times of two to three years and often more then we will continue to have vulture private operators in all branches of medicine, and the Government will be paying them for services that could be carried out much cheaper in public health departments.
have your say