|
|
|
| Mater Hospital refuses portokabins |
29
|
PATIENTS TOGETHER
085 7302798
patientstogether@eircom.net
Last Tuesday I spoke on Joe Duffy liveline show about my own personal fears of A&E and also that of my mams and patients nationwide. People are terrified and with every right. We forget that the people on these trolleys are not just there with minor injuries .No, minor injuries are waiting outside in chairs for twelve hours. The internal trolley, chair sufferers are people unwell enough to justify a much coveted hospital bed. These are admitted patients.
We met with the minister in Nov 04 and while she didn’t have a magic wand, she did promise we would see significant improvement in the coming months. The HSE say things have improved. Well we say they have not. We are hearing the true stories from the patients and things are definitely worse than ever. Don’t let them treat us like idiots. They are playing political games with our lives. Well sorry Minister, I for one am not going out to play today .I have a bit of a cold.
We will not allow them to wrap us up in a political numbers game either, disputing trolley counts. Even one patient on a trolley for one night is too much. And we find it disgusting that the government is only interest in boasting about a new Hospital in Cork .A ploy to try and overshadow the on going crisis. Do they think we are morons? We had a much published new unit open in Blanchardstown hospital Dublin and yet the figures of people on chairs and trolleys in Blanchardstown are still as bad as ever there.
Over recent months it seems the only response from the Taoiseach and Minister Harney in relation to the A&E crisis has been to quote that 3,300 people go through our hospitals everyday. This was by way of an explanation for the crisis we suffer.
Well I wish to apologise to them both on behalf of myself and my mother for falling ill. I go as far as apologise on behalf of the 3,300. I mean how dare we get sick. I got Cancer and needed a bed. How inconsiderate of me. Shame on the whole 3,300 of us for pressuring the system. I believe the Minister hoped when she increased the price of A&E to €55 that we would stay away. But where else can we go. I sat recently for three hours in my doctor’s surgery, an old lady beside me had pains in her chest but wouldn’t go to A&E. My own father was forced one night to ring a doctor at 5.00 am when my mother collapsed in the bedroom. A doctor came five hours later and when he arrived communication was impossible as the attending doctors English was poor. The doctor never put a finger on my mother, not even her blood pressure or temperature was taken.
Bertie and Mary, people are really trying to accommodate and be good citizens by staying away from the chaos of A&E. Either through fear, financial embarrassment or just feeling they will add to the chaos. But dare we ask where should we go?
Janette Byrne
|
|
06/05/2005
|
|
