Harney saves again

efb

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0201/breaking4.htm

this is twice that MH has saved the Irish Taxpayer money against the pharmacy sector. I'm sure this will be spun against her but I say as an Irish Taxpayer well done Mary!

Rulmeq

efb wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0201/breaking4.htm

this is twice that MH has saved the Irish Taxpayer money against the pharmacy sector. I'm sure this will be spun against her but I say as an Irish Taxpayer well done Mary!

I'm a great fan of hers... I thought it was so funny when the papers tried to spin her saving the taxpayer millions on the herpes inoculations as a back down on her part. If only there were other ministers willing to play hardball like her, the country wouldn't be verging on bankruptcy.

ZYX

You must be joking. Not only has Mary Harney spent more on health than any any minister before her, she spent more than every minister combined since the founding of the state with very little to show for it. Spending on health increased by multiple of inflation. Every man woman and child now has to pay €3500 a year for a health service that is in crisis. You can point to some minor improvements in the health service but these are tiny compared to the vast sums of money she has thrown at it.

We spend way more on health per head of population than the UK, and they have a far superior service. I can forgive Mary Harney for being a useless minister for health (after all they nearly always are) but to be useless and wasting a fortune, that is unforgivable.

The fact that she is now looking to get value for money is good I suppose but why wasn't she doing this years ago?

Rulmeq

ZYX wrote: »

You must be joking. Not only has Mary Harney spent more on health than any any minister before her, she spent more than every minister combined since the founding of the state with very little to show for it. Spending on health increased by multiple of inflation. Every man woman and child now has to pay €3500 a year for a health service that is in crisis. You can point to some minor improvements in the health service but these are tiny compared to the vast sums of money she has thrown at it.

We spend way more on health per head of population than the UK, and they have a far superior service. I can forgive Mary Harney for being a useless minister for health (after all they nearly always are) but to be useless and wasting a fortune, that is unforgivable.

The fact that she is now looking to get value for money is good I suppose but why wasn't she doing this years ago?

It was called benchmarking, and it was instigated by Bertie, there is a reason why the public service takes €20billion out of the economy every year.

Edit: That came across wrong, I've no problem with the public sector wage bill, however the wage increases given during the boom were predicated on infinite growth, something that anyone who ever paid compound interest had to know would set us up for a disaster.

Sleepy

How much of the wastage was down to her management of the brief and how much was due to wage inflation caused by social partnership?

jmayo

efb wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0201/breaking4.htm

this is twice that MH has saved the Irish Taxpayer money against the pharmacy sector. I'm sure this will be spun against her but I say as an Irish Taxpayer well done Mary!

Hey I found one I found a pd.

So you have forgotten about the likes of PPARS, private nursing home monitoring or more correctly the lack of, cancer misdiagnosis or any one of the other long list of failures that have occurred during her stewartship of the Dept of Health which is never responsible thanks to the creation of the HSE quangoe.
Oh and what about consultants contracts, some negotiation that gave them nice hefty pay rises.
Oh and have you also forgotten about Fás haircuts and Casa flights to Sligo to open offlicenses for friedns in Leitrim ?

Rulmeq wrote: »

I'm a great fan of hers... I thought it was so funny when the papers tried to spin her saving the taxpayer millions on the herpes inoculations as a back down on her part. If only there were other ministers willing to play hardball like her, the country wouldn't be verging on bankruptcy.

hardball me ar**.
How deluded are some people, her department makes a couple of good contract negotiations and she is being lauded as some wonder.

In case you are forgetting Reilly was on at time of cancellation of the cervical cancer vacination program and actually stated that the Dept of Health should try and do deal with drug companies to get cheaper deals.
In fact as far as I know he or some other doctor(s) in Nth Cty Dublin actually did a deal long before harney's dept got off their ar**.

BTW herpes inoculations ????

The_Honeybadger

Sleepy wrote: »

How much of the wastage was down to her management of the brief and how much was due to wage inflation caused by social partnership?

Anybody know how much of the overall health bill is wages? That may help answer the question, health is labour intensive and wages in the sector are high. Interesting article on our health service here, quite critical of the way our health service is managed and organised:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2009/1201/1224259785496.html

Love the reference to a salary of 250k as Mickey Mouse money LOL

Rulmeq

jmayo wrote: »

BTW herpes inoculations ????

I couldn't think of the name of them

ZYX

Rulmeq wrote: »

It was called benchmarking, and it was instigated by Bertie, there is a reason why the public service takes €20billion out of the economy every year.

Edit: That came across wrong, I've no problem with the public sector wage bill, however the wage increases given during the boom were predicated on infinite growth, something that anyone who ever paid compound interest had to know would set us up for a disaster.

No it wasn't benchmarking although that contributed. Wages make up a large part of this spend but mainly from increased staff. Staff numbers increased about 60% in last 10 years. That sounds like a good thing but unless it results in major improvemnets it is a waste. I know the health service is better than it used to be but it is not better enough if you know what I mean.

efb

James Reilly? The man that got the doctors a great deal in the original OAP med card fiasco? (that wasn't harney's fault)

Or the man that wanted to go ahead with the cervical cancer jab irrespective of the costs involved? (prob thinking of his old doc buddies)

Easiest job in the dail opposition spokesperson on health...

Glad partnership was Harneys fault, don't remember her in the negotions.

jmayo

efb wrote: »

James Reilly? The man that got the doctors a great deal in the original OAP med card fiasco? (that wasn't harney's fault)

Or the man that wanted to go ahead with the cervical cancer jab irrespective of the costs involved? (prob thinking of his old doc buddies)

Easiest job in the dail opposition spokesperson on health...

Glad partnership was Harneys fault, don't remember her in the negotions.

Yes he was the guy reposnsible for getting good deal for doctors in the OAP medical card discussions.
He was afterall representing the doctors (he is one himself) and not the taxpayers.
Thus he got a good deal for them.
It only highlights how much better a negogiator he is in comparison to those from government and Dept of Health side.

Actaully he had stated at time of cancellation of cervical cancer vaccine that harney should seek better deal from drug companies.
Sadly she manages to do this after how many girls missed on getting the vaccine.
Lets hope that none of those girls develop cervical cancer in say 20 years time.

Which partnership talks are you on about ?
I am alluding to the new consultants contracts where they got massive pay hikes over inconveniences about co location/public/private hours etc.
So if she wasn't at those talks then was she at the ones with the drug companies ?

FFS harney's tenure at health will be remembered for people dying needlessly, nobody ever being held accountable for those cockups and wads of cash being thrown at the system all the while no long term worthwhile changes were brought in.

BTW why weren't the drug companies in Ireland ever targetted before on the high prices they were charging ?
No wonder people were buying valium over the net. :rolleyes: