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

[Colour Scientist]

Can anyone justify this to me!?

To put it simply, the HSE has gone to shit and most rural hospitals should be shut down and rebuilt from scratch but, unfortunately, we don't actually have any money.

The mortality rate in these kinds of rural hospitals is much higher than the bigger ones, such as Dublin or Cork. The bigger hospitals are over-spending their budgets every single month and even then they don't have sufficient funds to cope with the influx of people. Due to this people in serious need of medical care are left in hallways and crucial operations are delayed for what can be months. It seems to make more sense to pump money into the more effective hospitals rather than trying to resuscitate the ones that are below par in terms of equipment and hygiene and that are understaffed.

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.

The "wickle new ward" in Dublin is going to cater for children around the country not just those from Dublin. Where do parents send their children if they are seriously ill? Dublin. Not Roscommon or any other back arse of nowhere hospital. They send them to the place that is most likely to make their child well again.

Obviously, time is vital when dealing with something like a car crash, a stroke or a heart attack and I think the Government should put something in place for the people in your area in order to reduce the time needed to get to Galway or Dublin, like a specific ambulance sector for that area or something (with well-trained staff and quick reaction times). Having said that, if one of my relatives had a medical emergency I would chose to risk the extra time in order to send them to the best medical facility available.

 

[Treblaine]

(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 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!?

Do they have helicopters?

Because that's what they do in Scotland. When the population density is so low and so widely spread it is more cost effective to send a helicopter that can cover long distances like that in about the same time a (relatively slow) ambulance can cover shorter distances.

Hospitals are expensive and if the surrounding population is of a low density then the hospital would cost hugely more money than a helicopter. Trust me, you DO NOT want to end up in one of those small low-scale emergency hospitals, a helicopter ride is much better taking you to a GOOD hospital.

 

[Ninjamedic]

As for this hospital, maybe the children's hospital will save more lives than your hospital? What's the throughput of your hospital? If it doesn't compare to the children's hospital and the facilities for paediatric care are insufficient it's a no brainer.

THERE'S OVER 40 HOSPITALS IN DUBLIN ALREADY, WE LOST OUR ONLY ONE, and they add another one to dublin?!



And as I said, the finding the closure was based on were bullshit.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Do they have helicopters?

Because that's what they do in Scotland. When the population density is so low and so widely spread it is more cost effective to send a helicopter that can cover long distances like that in about the same time a (relatively slow) ambulance can cover shorter distances.

Hospitals are expensive and if the surrounding population is of a low density then the hospital would cost hugely more money than a helicopter. Trust me, you DO NOT want to end up in one of those small low-scale emergency hospitals, a helicopter ride is much better taking you to a GOOD hospital.

We have no helicopters, they are used on the coastal guard...

 

[SillyBear]

My boyfriend is Australian and his Grand parents live over 500km to the nearest hospital. It's horrifying thinking what would happen if something kicked off.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Can anyone justify this to me!?

To put it simply, the HSE has gone to shit and most rural hospitals should be shut down and rebuilt from scratch but, unfortunately, we don't actually have any money.

The mortality rate in these kinds of rural hospitals is much higher than the bigger ones, such as Dublin or Cork. The bigger hospitals are over-spending their budgets every single month and even then they don't have sufficient funds to cope with the influx of people. Due to this people in serious need of medical care are left in hallways and crucial operations are delayed for what can be months. It seems to make more sense to pump money into the more effective hospitals rather than trying to resuscitate the ones that are below par in terms of equipment and hygiene and that are understaffed.

But the "proof" they had for the closure was debunked as rubbish, the mortality rate wasn't that high in Roscommon. Again Dublin has around 30-40 hospitals, this is madness.

 

[Treblaine]

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.

Well third world countries are the way they are because they have very little money and huge debts, not just because they're African or something.

Ireland has very little money and huge debts... so...

You know my geography teacher always objected to labels like "poor countries" or "tin pot nations" or "the third world", which at the time I always thought was pedantic though he always said:

"What if something went wrong here? How would you like to be given such labels?"

I always thought it would never happen...

PS: Thousands of people in Scotland are more than 100miles from a hospital and this has been true since, well, ever.

 

[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.

Everyone always thinks that. That's the problem.

See, you can't cut healthcare, can't cut pensions, fuel allowance, law enforcement or education. But you also can't raise taxes. Sooner or later you have to make the hard choices because Ireland's economy is almost as far into debt as Britain's and they have a smaller GDP. Also the Euro has been brutally undercut by that trouble in Greece and Italy.

Frankly if removing a hospital that isn't servicing all that many people is the thing to cut then it probably has to be done.

Sure you can cut fuel allowance and pensions. Things that lead to a lower quality of living can be cut. Things that lead to death? Not so much.

There's a difference between it being important, and yes all those things you name are important, and it being a real life-or-death situation, which, for instance, education isn't.

Also, don't forget Portugal's FUBAR state. Italy's situation is, for a large part, fear mongering. They haven't actually dropped to their knees yet. Yet.

 

[Treblaine]

Do they have helicopters?

Because that's what they do in Scotland. When the population density is so low and so widely spread it is more cost effective to send a helicopter that can cover long distances like that in about the same time a (relatively slow) ambulance can cover shorter distances.

Hospitals are expensive and if the surrounding population is of a low density then the hospital would cost hugely more money than a helicopter. Trust me, you DO NOT want to end up in one of those small low-scale emergency hospitals, a helicopter ride is much better taking you to a GOOD hospital.

We have no helicopters, they are used on the coastal guard...

Well then simple: get coastguard to pull double duty on both land and sea.

Are you sure there are no air ambulances at ALL in the RoI?

 

[mrscott137]

What... the fuck. Whose genius fucking idea was that?

 

[Ninjamedic]

LOUD NOISES!

But seriously a centralised and well equipped hospital with helicopter service is probably better than an arse-end-of-nowhere hospital without proper funding. I have had to try and use smaller hospitals before and they were useless.

1: We don't have a helicopter service
2: The mortality rate of Roscommon hospital was greatly exaggerated
3: If a central hospital should be built, it should be in Athlone, Dead center of the country. But, as per usual it goes to Dublin . (in the far east of the country)

 

[Ninjamedic]

Well then simple: get coastguard to pull double duty on both land and sea.

Are you sure there are no air ambulances at ALL in the RoI?

As far as I know, no air ambulances, I'm not even sure we got another ambulance.

 

[Colour Scientist]

But the "proof" they had for the closure was debunked as rubbish, the mortality rate wasn't that high in Roscommon.

"Wasn't that high" is not a comforting statistic for a hospital. I'm not singling out Roscommon, it applies to basically all rural hospitals, Roscommon just happened to be one of the first to go and, trust me, it won't be the last.

Again Dublin has around 30-40 hospitals, this is madness.

Yes but Dublin is our Primate city, it wouldn't make sense if a majority of our hospitals WEREN'T there. The fact is that most of the resources to build effective hospitals are in Dublin and that's where there is the highest concentration of people.

 

[Ninjamedic]

But the "proof" they had for the closure was debunked as rubbish, the mortality rate wasn't that high in Roscommon.

"Wasn't that high" is not a comforting statistic for a hospital. I'm not singling out Roscommon, it applies to basically all rural hospitals, Roscommon just happened to be one of the first to go and, trust me, it won't be the last.

Again Dublin has around 30-40 hospitals, this is madness.

Yes but Dublin is our Primate city, it wouldn't make sense if a majority of our hospitals WEREN'T there. The fact is that most of the resources to build effective hospitals are in Dublin and that's where there is the highest concentration of people.

Then why are we forcing anyone west of the Shannon to go to Dublin? Why not put a new hospital in Athlone?

 

[Vrach]

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!?

I'll play the Devil's advocate and give it a shot - hospital is not the only, nor even the main place you go to to treat an emergency case, it's the place to put patients that need to be hospitalized. Am I right in assuming that you guys have an emergency ward or something similar much closer than that?

 

[Ninjamedic]

Am I right in assuming that you guys have an emergency ward or something similar much closer than that?

The emergency department was closed, the rest of the hospital is there but the procedures there are routine and could be easily adopted by any of the larger hospitals. Our hospital's existance is now pointless. The nearest A&E to where I'm sitting is 2 hours away, and that's if the traffic is good.

 

[Cowabungaa]

snip

You're right about the fact that no-one wants to cut anything but keeps talking about them, I ain't going to argue that.

But what I mean is that having a lower pension isn't as life-and-death as, say, having a heart attack and needing a doctor asap. If an old granny has a lower pension and can't buy certain things, relatives could help out, just to name something. They're not split-second life-or-death situations that suddenly arise like a heart attack or brain hemorrage.

Hence why to me the choice is easy; scrap anything but that hospital. And if you really have to, at least make sure residents can get emergency healthcare some other way, like buying rescue helicopters for a small percentage of the cash you save from scrapping that hospital.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Then why are we forcing anyone west of the Shannon to go to Dublin? Why not put a new hospital in Athlone?

Let me reiterate, our country is broke. I'm amazed they're even building a new hospital and because they are managing to set aside funds for one they need to put it in an area where it will be most effective and will be able to care for the most amount of people in the most efficient manner. That place just happens to be Dublin.

It's not fair but it's realistic.
I know that Fine Gael promised that the hospital would stay open but Irish politicians aren't exactly world renowned for keeping election promises. Even still, they probably fully intended to keep it open but once they came into power and realised the true extent of our economic situation they had to do what was necessary. I doubt they would have taken that kind of public opinion hit lightly.