Following the decision to take Monaghan off call and complete the downgrading process, HSE network management probably feels that at last the monkey is off their back and if they can pull off the retreat from Monaghan then anywhere; Ennis, Nenagh, Mallow, Bantry or Wexford is on for downgrading. Somehow I don’t think so. The people of Monaghan have been successfully ignored by the HSE. The connection between the community and care is gone, if you’re sick in Monaghan the reality is that you should go to either Cavan or Drogheda and join the queues in those counties. Now that might please many people if they knew that there were no queues and no trolleys there but the reality is different. The old health boards were lambasted because of political representations interfering with... Similar posts

After ten years, ten months and ten days in office, Bertie’s finally gone! You cannot but wonder if Mary Harney will soon be following him. Brian Cowen, our Taoiseach-in-waiting, is due to receive his seal of office tomorrow and will announce his new cabinet shortly afterwards. Will he show Mary the door? I had to laugh when reading about the HSE in the Sunday Indo yesterday. “A bloated system”. “HSE belt tightening is a fat lot of good”. “The HSE like everyone else needs to tighten the belt, to cut a little fat”. “The HSE will soon resemble a hippopotamus in bondage gear”. I”ll give you one guess as to what stimulates this sort of language from newspaper columnists . You guessed right. Our present... Similar posts

Our Minister for Health, Mary Harney, is very anxious to make cutbacks in the health service. You see, she faces a bit of a problem. The huge expenditure required to maintain the high salaries of the bureaucrats within the HSE (Health Service Executive) is eating into the budget that was allocated to improve the Health Service. It’s definitely a case of ‘robbing Peter (the patients) to pay Paul (public servants)’. Patients are fed up waiting for the conditions in our hospitals to improve. Hospital buildings are crying out for investment, much of the equipment is outdated and staff morale is at an all time low. So rapid action is needed if Mary is to save face. First we were told that our Minister is putting a freeze on the employment of new health service workers... Similar posts

Following today's announcement of the new Beacon Hospital in Sandyford today I thought I'd attach a speech I gave in the Dail last night on motion I tabled on the private hospitals issue... As many things like this unfortunately don't get coverage in the papers I thought I'd put it up here, just in case would like to read it in full. I'd welcome your comments...SPEECH BY LIZ MCMANUS TDLabour Deputy Leader and Spokesperson on Health,During Dail Debate on Privatisation of HealthcareTuesday, 24th October 2006GOVT COMMITTED TO DEVELOPING & EXPANDING TWO-TIER HEALTH SERVICEI want to thank my Labour colleagues for agreeing to table this motion. It is important that we talk here, in this, our national parliament, about what we want as a people from our health service. Ask anyone in the street... Similar posts