125km to the nearest hospital- wait, WHAT!?

[Ninjamedic]

(Moved from Religion and Politics since it died after 3 posts)

Since no-one has mentioned this I'll bring it up. As you may or may not know, the A&E department of the hospital in my county (Roscommon) has been closed after we (the county that is not myself) elected a party whose only guarantee to us was that they would keep our A&E open. Now, since they are a conservative party I did expect there to be cut backs but this is inhuman. The only reason we needed this hospital was for the A&E Department since the other procedures there can be easily be handled in Galway or Sligo. Now its closed if there is an accident (with a large amount of elderly people and farming being the main industry making accidents probable) the ambulances could take up to 2.5 hours to get to the accident and then get the victim to the hospital. Its a death sentence for anyone unlucky enough to have a serious injury or a heart attack.

And then as the final insult we find that the "evidence" that the closure was based on was debunked as horseshit.




So, yeah I'm PISSED. It's nice knowing that the kiddies in Dublin are going to get a wickle new ward and if my father or mother are in a accident they're dead. Can anyone justify this to me!?

Note: Since everyone so far thinks we all voted for Fine Gael, I'll just add that I supported the Independent TD's.

 

[JoJo]

I guess your country does need serious cuts, but ouch that's harsh. I can't think of much of a way to justify that, the only thing I can suggest is protests and when election time comes again, remind everyone in your county of the parties bad deeds and hope they lose that election, maybe even elect a party that'll bring back your A&E department.

 

[ioxles]

No, I can't justify it, and I won't even try to rationalize it without all the details, but, I can through some ideas to what you or your community should be doing to change it.

First thing I thought of in lieu of rabid protesters would be calling the ambulances out for every single thing that might happen. Someone stub a toe? Ambulance. Someone got a cough? y'know the drill. Hit them where it hurts - their PR department. Make it a community effort.

 

[Ninjamedic]

And an Air Ambulance could probably cover the distance too and from Dublin in under 2.5 miles, furthermore if it is a serious life threatening emergency they can receive treatment from a non-A&E hospital while waiting for transport, so the move shouldn't be endangering them too much.

You've never seen the Road system in the west, When I said 2.5 hours, i meant galway, dublin could be up to 4 depending on traffic.

 

[Ninjamedic]

No, I can't justify it, and I won't even try to rationalize it without all the details, but, I can through some ideas to what you or your community should be doing to change it.

First thing I thought of in lieu of rabid protesters would be calling the ambulances out for every single thing that might happen. Someone stub a toe? Ambulance. Someone got a cough? y'know the drill. Hit them where it hurts - their PR department. Make it a community effort.

The Hospital protest committee are supposedly planning a lawsuit against the Department of health based on the "reasons" for the closure was horseshit.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Although I will admit, it would suck to have to drive that far for something as trivial as say, a broken thumb.

Be worse if you had to hitchhike, your thumb being busted and all.

If its an emergency, then yeah the hospitals do have to treat you right away. Could be worse, the closest hospital to me (about 5 kms) is staffed by idiots who wouldn't know a pair of forceps from the ass end of a rhino.

 

[Ninjamedic]

And an Air Ambulance could probably cover the distance too and from Dublin in under 2.5 miles, furthermore if it is a serious life threatening emergency they can receive treatment from a non-A&E hospital while waiting for transport, so the move shouldn't be endangering them too much.

You've never seen the Road system in the west, When I said 2.5 hours, i meant galway, dublin could be up to 4 depending on traffic.

Luckily, Air Ambulances don't need roads

They're all being used only for the coastal guard.........

 

[Ninjamedic]

Although I will admit, it would suck to have to drive that far for something as trivial as say, a broken thumb.

If its an emergency, then yeah the hospitals do have to treat you right away. Could be worse, the closest hospital to me (about 5 kms) is staffed by idiots who wouldn't know a pair of forceps from the ass end of a rhino.

That sounds like Dublin's hospital staff to me.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Well Ireland appears to have pretty much bankrupted itself and people don't shut hospitals for shits and giggles so maybe there's no choice.

This is the problem with people; they want cuts but no cuts they'll ever actually have to experience.

"cut services".
"OK, we're cutting pensions".
"boo"
"Umm...OK, we're cutting health spending!"
"boo"
"Well we need to cut something, what do you want to lose?"
(nebulous and contradictory useless list)
"OK so you don't want to lose anything but we need more money so how about we raise taxes?"
"boo!"

Basically Labour subsidised the country on credit and now it's time to repay. You want less taxes and no loss of service.

In short, what you want is in fact impossible.

All I want is to not die if I get into an accident, is that being entitled? Should I remind you of the fact that there are plans for a new hospital in Dublin?
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/review-backs-mater-site-for-new-childrens-hospital-2812808.html

 

[Robert Ewing]

Well, Ireland is in a state of political chaos. Stuff like this is bound to happen, your economy dead.

 

[Ninjamedic]

First thing I thought of in lieu of rabid protesters would be calling the ambulances out for every single thing that might happen. Someone stub a toe? Ambulance. Someone got a cough? y'know the drill. Hit them where it hurts - their PR department. Make it a community effort.

And then you'll create a culture of scepticism in the ambulance dispatch, which makes them think twice before actually sending someone over.

And then someone gets seriously hurt, and they end up on the very bottom of the things-to-do list for the ambulance.


Nice advice man.

We already are on the bottom of the list, nothing to lose!

 

[Ninjamedic]

All I want is to not die if I get into an accident, is that being entitled? Should I remind you of the fact that there are plans for a new hospital in Dublin?

Did I say entitled? I said that people were all in favour of cuts as long as they never had to suffer for them. The old want the foreigners kicked out, the students want the old to lose pensions and everyone else wants the waster students to lose funding. Everyone likes cuts as long as they're out of sight.

Besides, there is no option. We are out of money. This is serious shit here, we are literally on the end of our funding. There is no more gold to flog off cheap for instant cash, no more debt to go in to, no more private investments. We are really, really fucked unless we make hard cuts. Dropping the hospital isn't ideal but it needs to be done.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/review-backs-mater-site-for-new-childrens-hospital-2812808.html

Ireland's situation is a wee bit different than England's.

 

[Cowabungaa]

We are really, really fucked unless we make hard cuts. Dropping the hospital isn't ideal but it needs to be done.

Somehow I think that you can make hard cuts in areas that are not concerned with saving people's lives. I mean, 125km to the next hospital? That's freakin' Third World levels of crap.