Scairbh
Na
gCaorach
EMYVALE
We ain’t seen nuthin yet !!
We were prepared for a tough budget, we were prepared for the bailout, we were prepared for cuts all around and for Christmas we got them all. Now I have to specify who ‘We’ are as not all people had to pay up. The TDs and Senior Civil Servants exempted themselves and the very rich, those over 150,000 per year, got an increase instead of a cut. Now as 2011 slips in with frost, icy roads, frozen pipes, burst water pipes, potholed roads, increasing prices, more unemployed, increasing number of poor, closing businesses we are beginning to see the real effects of the Budget and the bailouts. Income Tax has increased for those on lower wages, income levies, health levies, pension levies, PRSI, are all biting deeper into our pay packets, for those who get pay packets, and social welfare is cut for those who have no jobs. Cost of living is rising sharply – fuel costs, food costs, electricity costs, doctors fees, dentist fees, mortgage repayments, insurance costs, etc etc are rising rapidly. So with less money we are expected to pay more, and they need more as the tax intake is totally insufficient to pay the social welfare bills and the difference is growing.
How did this Government get it all so wrong? What kind of ‘experts’ did they have giving them advice? Can we prosecute those who led us astray?
But it is not over yet. The Greens want to increase the ‘Green Taxes’, they want us to pay more for fuel, electricity, carbon footprints, and recycling and in order to hold on to ‘the mercs and perks’ the Government is agreeable to go along with them. Now we have the VHI increases which, for the older age group, will be about 45%. OK we can change to Aviva or Quinn but who will bet that they will not increase their premium before the Summer? The outcome will be that some will do without something else in order to have health insurance; others will borrow to pay the premium, others will just be unable to pay and they will have to revert to the Public System. What Public System I hear you ask and rightly so as Mary Harney and this Government have allowed it to disintegrate in order to attract the Private Investor. We, the taxpayers, will in future have to pay for the Public Patient to be treated in the Private Hospital – we are already doing that through the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). Unfortunately the Private System is about making profits and the patient is a consumer buying services but the profit comes first. Of course the Private hospitals will not treat the long-term illnesses and the procedures that do not pay profits. The tax payer will have to fund these treatments in the public hospitals and this will also be more costly but in the meantime we have to face overworked doctors, mistakes, litigation, infections, waiting lists, cancelled procedures, premature discharges, and a frightening scenario.
The reconfiguration of hospitals, as is being implemented, was recommended by ‘experts’,
namely Teamwork. However we should read the introduction to their report which is
as follows: - "The Health Service Executive has specifically asked us to comment
on the risks and benefits associated with the current provision of acute hospital
services on the five hospital sites in the North East, without undertaking clinical
governance, detailed service and site reviews, or engaging with local clinicians
and staff.
Of necessity therefore, our comments in this section do not represent a
comprehensive risk analysis, rather they have been derived from interpretation of
the hospital discharge data and the review of previous reports dealing with specific
incidents that have given rise to concern".
In other words they did not know what they were commenting on but were taking the word of others. "Speaking at a recent Joint Oireachtas Health Committee meeting, Mr Martin Dove and Mr John Saunders, two key members of Teamwork Management Services, stated that while the developments in the North East were likely to eventually lead to an improved local system, it was imperative to ensure that the intervening period was not littered with avoidable mistakes." What a statement from such an 'expert' body. Lets look at it in more detail. They say that the developments are 'likely' to lead 'eventually' to 'improvements' in local services. It is 'hoped' that it will make a difference is what they said in the report, so they are not so sure that they have got it right. We know that they have made a big mistake. It might happen 'eventually' and we say that it will never happen as they have not got the money or the proper idea but then the private sector is expected to fill the gap causing greater problems. They use the word - 'improvement' - I thought that we were told that these reconfigurations for our hospitals would give us a 'world class service' - this was the panacea, the magic potion for all our unsafe hospitals.
All of this was predicted by the Hospital Alliance in 2005 but no one listened then and will likely not listen now and so – we ain’t seen nuthin yet.