Health/HSE

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Child abuse holocaust continues

December 22, 2008 in Government, Health/HSE, Religion by Anthony | No comments

The holocaust of child abuse continues in the Catholic Church. A publication by the National Board for Safeguarding Children strongly censured Bishop of Cloyne, John McGee, for “potentially exposing vulnerable children to further harm.”

Even the usually mild mannered and conservative Marian Fincuane (Saturday) was angry.

“I was listening to the Bishop on the six o’clock news where he said ‘we’re in learning mode’ – learning mode??
And I just think we should remind ourselves that Ivor Paine was first sent for treatment in 1981, the Brendan Smyth event happened in 1994, we had the revelation about the £30,000 which was paid to Andrew Madden and then we had Archbishop Connell coming out in May 1995.
Then we had Ferns, then, fortunately we had Archbishop Martin who said we’re going to get our act together here, we’re going to cooperate in every possible way with the State, we are going to be open and transparent.
But down in Cloyne they’re still in ‘learning mode’ and this is about the protection of children who can have their lives destroyed by these kinds of events happening. So, I think now that below in Cloyne it would be very useful if you got into a slightly faster learning mode.”

Matthew Ring, a priest who nine years ago courageously left the Diocese of Cloyne in disgust at how sex allegations were being dealt with by McGee, was even more to the point.

“If John McGee as bishop of Cloyne was resident in England he would be questioned by the police and all his documents would be removed from his house and there would be a thorough investigation into what went on. I think in terms of Ireland the bishops feel they’re above the law and above accountability and that’s the fundamental problem in Ireland. Until such time as a bishop is held before the courts of the land in Ireland there will be no transparency and no accountability.”

We at Public Inquiry would add to the list of those who are above the law in Ireland – Politicians, bureaucrats, bankers, solicitors, policemen – the list goes on.

The Catholic Church always puts its own interests before the vulnerable it claims to protect. This is unlikely to change given that it is now led by a man who fatefully served Hitler’s Nazi party until the very last days of the war.

The HSE, another agency that often operates outside the law, refused to give a date for the release of another report it possess concerning child abuse. No doubt it is waiting for the most opportune moment to slip it out quietly while the media is otherwise engaged.

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The (Fianna Fail) Hippocratic Oath

November 14, 2008 in Fianna Fail, Health/HSE by Anthony | 1 comment

Here’s how Donegal Fianna Fail TD Dr. Jim McDaid explained why he could not support the Government’s decision to postpone a cervical cancer vaccination programme for young women.

“We will pass a death sentence on a certain percentage of the 12-year-old girls whose parents cannot afford the cost of it.”Is there anyone in this House who would not give the vaccine to their daughters today?”

“Fifty years from now, it will not be important what my bank account was, what type or car I drove or what size of house I lived in.”It does matter to me that during my stay in this House I may have been, just may have been, important in the life of a child.

“Accordingly, I cannot vote for the Government’s motion this evening,”

“I fully realise the implications of this but I trust that my colleagues understand that, while I will abstain, I will not vote per se against them.

I cannot vote against an oath I took 34 years ago.”

The oath Dr. McDaid speaks of is, of course, the Hippocratic Oath. The following are two promises made in the oath.

“To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them.” and “Never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else’s interest.”

Dr. McDaid seems to be taking a distinctly Fianna Fail attitude to the oath.

He knew that no matter how he voted the Government would prevail. So if he was genuinely determined ‘never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else’s interest’ he should have voted against the motion instead of hedging his bets by abstaining.

As it is he has put himself in the worst of positions. His colleagues will not be impressed by his plea that he is ‘not voting per se against the motion and others will judge that as doctor who took the Hippocratic Oath he felt it was enough to merely abstain on a matter that was important to the life of a child.

He won’t, however, have to worry about the judgement of a ‘certain percentage of 12 year old girls’.

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NTPF rip off

November 6, 2008 in Government, Health/HSE, Medical profession by Anthony | 1 comment

Letter in yesterday’s Irish Times.

Madam,

The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has a budget of of €100 million in taxpayers’ money for 2008.

According to the NTPF’s latest report, some 20,000 “in-patients” were treated in 2007 at a cost of €92 million. The report does not provide precise details of the procedures performed or of their individual cost, but at least two-thirds of the procedures listed, such as endoscopy, tonsillectomy and dental extraction, would normally be carried out as day-case procedures, which are relatively inexpensive.

Some 10,000 out-patient consultations and some 2,000 MRI scans were also provided. Excluding the out-patients, the cost per in-patient treated was therefore €4,600. Four private hospitals shared €49 million of the fund.

The Mid-Western Regional Hospital complex in Limerick, which includes three hospitals – the Regional Hospital, the Regional Maternity Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital – has a budget of €195 million. In 2007, it treated 33,000 genuine in-patients, about 75 per cent of which were emergency cases, of all levels of complexity, and 19,000 day-case “in-patients”; 29,000 new out-patients were seen along with 109,000 review out-patients. Again excluding this massive out-patient activity, the cost per-inpatient treated was €3,750.

There is something radically wrong here. On the basis of these numbers and the case mix, the NTPF figures suggest a waste of, at the very minimum, €20 million.

Those who are committed to eroding our public hospital system in favour of creeping privatisation might take note.

Yours, etc,

Dr GERRY BURKE, Riverside Clinic, Steamboat Quay, Limerick.

The figures quoted in this letter are astonishing and outrageous. The NTPF was originally set up to treat seriously ill patients languishing on long waiting lists. The idea was to treat these patients outside the jurisdiction in order to relieve pressure on a creaking and inefficient health service.

But as always in Ireland the scheme has been corrupted. Here’s how it now works.

A consultant in a public hospital treating a public patient will be paid X amount for his work. If that patient is put on the NTPF list the consultant’s fee is considerably increased.

So, we can have a situation where a consultant, working in a public hospital paid for by the taxpayer, treats a patient in the morning and decides to put him on the NTPF list. The same consultant returns in the afternoon and because the patient is now on the NTPF list and therefore judged to be a private patient the consultant’s fee is multiplied.

As the above letter reveals many of the treatments are not of a serious nature and therefore should not qualify for NTPF. I suspect that the €20 million wastage mentioned is a fraction of the total cost to the long suffering taxpayer.

See here for more on this scandal.

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Time for court action

November 5, 2008 in Health/HSE, The State by Anthony | No comments

Yet another report from the HSE outlining the suffering and death of patients because of bureaucratic incompetence. A delay of 14 months in cancer diagnosis had serious consequences for nine patients and resulted in the death of at least one of them. In my book this is manslaughter at minimum.

The HSE reacted in its usual sly and callous manner, releasing the report on a day when the media were focused on the historic events unfolding in America.

It’s long past time that somebody in the HSE was hauled before the courts on a charge of manslaughter.

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PPARS

October 22, 2008 in Health/HSE by Gavin | 2 comments

Prime Time, October 6, 2005

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Doctor’s greed defended by Fine Gael

October 20, 2008 in Health/HSE, Medical profession, The State by Anthony | 2 comments

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr. James Reilly just couldn’t bring himself to admit the reality of his situation on the Marian Finucane Show on Sunday.

It was Dr. Reilly who negotiated the grotesquely greedy deal that saw doctors receive €640 for every patient over the age of 70. Now he’s trying to condemn the Government for attacking the elderly while at the same time defending his part in the deal.

When asked did he think the fee was a valid one he replied:

“I do because it works out at €55 per patient per visit and that is not excessive in my view.”

This was a cynical attempt to suggest that the fee is dependant on patient visits. In fact the €640 is paid whether or not a patient visits. I assume the €55 fee Reilly mentions is an additional fee for every visit making the deal even more objectionable.

On Liveline during the week another doctor moaned about overheads in an attempt to justify the greed. A doctor’s receptionist told me recently that her pay is so low she qualifies for a doctor only card.

Reilly would be better advised to come out straight and admit that doctors, like most other professions in Ireland, have lowered their moral standards in exchange money.

Copy to:
Dr. Reilly

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Why in hell…

September 26, 2008 in Health/HSE by Anthony | 3 comments

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

Why is Harney still in a job?

Please tell me, in all honesty, why in hell is Mary Harney still in office? What does someone have to do in Ireland to get the boot? How much longer can you tolerate these people? I guess when you elect Mr Haughey in for three terms my question is indeed moot.

It’s only news when someone steals millions, then you have a tribunal which costs millions, only to say, yes, he did indeed steal millions.

BRIAN FURLONG
ADDRESS WITH THE EDITOR

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The horrors are still happening

September 8, 2008 in Health/HSE, The State by Anthony | 2 comments

Anyone unfamiliar with the horrors done to women by Michael Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda should read this article by Marie O’Connor in yesterday’s Sunday Independent.

The article exposes the rotten underbelly of how this country is ‘managed’. And don’t for a moment think that things are any different today, they’re not – Nothing has changed.

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Justice and Dr. Neary

September 2, 2008 in Government, Health/HSE by Anthony | 1 comment

A caller to Today with Pat Kenny asked if Dr. Neary was ever prosecuted for the horrors he committed on women in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

Of course Dr. Neary was never prosecuted, that sort of thing doesn’t happen in Ireland. Instead, he was given a €70,000 pension and sent on his way.

What do those women expect in a corrupt state – accountability, justice?

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So, what’s new?

August 14, 2008 in Government, Health/HSE by Anthony | 5 comments

Actor and broadcaster Joe Taylor was on the Marian Finucane Show last Saturday talking about his most memorable radio and television moments.

Here’s an edited account of what he had to say about the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes.

The Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes was set up in the 1930s with the intention of providing Irish hospitals with funds to develop proper facilities. The whole set up was very impressive and was operated under the watchful eye of the Garda Commissioner

When I discovered actually what was taking place behind the scenes at the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes I thought ‘oh my god, were we ever suckered into a feeling of delusion.

It was Mark Twain who said you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. The sweeps fooled all of the people for practically all of the time – for 57 years.

If a quarter of the money that was raised through the sale of tickets illegally in America and Canada, because gambling was banned in both these countries, Prof Drumm and Mary Harney would be carried around the country today for having the best hospital service in the entire world.

But the money sort of disappeared; it was taken up in administration and so on. At one stage the mafia in the late 30s tried to muscle in on the Sweepstakes in America and the Sweeps sent over a couple of IRA men and also they had the ear of American cops and so the Mafia backed down and there was no more interference.

Then in 1947 the Mexican government decided they would try to sell tickets into America. The Mexicans were delighted when the Irish offered to supply them with consultants to help them but soon realised that they were being ripped off when all the money started to go back to Ireland.

So, let’s just review the main points.

1930s Ireland and the health services were of a Third World standard. A scheme to generate funds was set up by the Government and overseen by the number one policeman in the country. The scheme was corrupt from day one and everybody in power knew about it but did nothing.

When another corrupt organisation tried to take some of the action they were threatened with violence. When another country tried to set up the same scam they were ripped off by the Irish.

Very little money was actually spent on health services so Irish citizens continued to suffer and die needlessly because of greed and corruption.

Ireland still has a Third World health service; people are still suffering and dying because of incompetence and corruption and practically all of the people are still allowing themselves to be fooled.

So, what’s new?

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