Public meeting on future of Portlaoise Hospital

ILA

Meeting organised by the Hospital Action Committee.

There will be an urgent public meeting next wendesday night, the 29th June at 8pm in the GAA CLUB PORTLAOISE to discuss action to be taken against the impending downgrading and closure of hospital departments at the MIDLANDS REGIONAL HOSPITAL PORTLAOISE.

It is imperative that as many people as possible make the effort to attend in order to safeguard the future of our hospital which is facing a major downgrading by the Heath Service Executive with one of three outcomes:

1. Portlaoise would be closed to acute surgical admissions. Patients would be seen in Kilkenny, Tullamore or Naas.

2. The Accident and Emergency opening hours would be cut or in the worst scenario that it would be downgraded to a minor injury unit, which would not take emergency ambulance patients who would be forced to endure a longer life-threatening journey to Kilkenny, Tullamore or Naas.

3. The report also threw up the possibility of Mullingar hospital; suffering the same fate as Portlaoise. There is also a chance that Tullamore’s A&E could close at night if it cannot retain enough junior doctors, which severely worsen patient care.

Uncorruptable

Hi all,

I am chairman of the United Left Alliance in Laois/Offaly & intent to make the meeting tomorrow, i understand there is a mass rally proposed for this coming sunday also which we will try & draw as much support for on the day.

We have a number of posters (30) ready to go up around portlaoise with details of the protest for sunday in an attempt to bring as many people as possible to support this.

The cutbacks in our essential services on all fronts is due the the disasterous policies that have been adhered to over the last number of years commiting the people of Ireland to cover the losses of the failed private banks upon the orders from the ECB/IMF.

We have been asked to cover the gambled & lost deals of the International bondholders we hear so much about but know not who they are, Below is the list of Anglo's bondholders, who's bad gambling debts we are being asked to cover & pay for with the cut backs in our essential services we are here discussing,



To add some context to how unescessary it really is to make our people suffer this drop in living standards & potential life or death situation, here is the value of Anglos bondholders for your information,

The estimated value of the overall wealth of the above Bondholders is,

€20.5 Trillion, which is equal to €20,500 Billion.

We have been asked to cover €35 Billion of Anglo's bad bonds.

This translates into 0.17% of the their overall wealth.

To the end of 2010, the cost of 'bailouts' to banks world wide stood at,

€11.9 Trillion, which is equal to €11,900 Bilion.

A little over half of the wealth of Anglo's bondholders covers the entire bailout needs of the worlds banks!!!!! Yet we are going to be squeezed for every single cent they can get away with.

It is in this context why we need to fight tooth & nail at every cutback, closure, pay cut & stealth tax.

We in the United Left Alliance will call on everyone we can to support this campaign.

elvis jones

Uncorruptable wrote: »

Hi all,

I am chairman of the United Left Alliance in Laois/Offaly & intent to make the meeting tomorrow, i understand there is a mass rally proposed for this coming sunday also which we will try & draw as much support for on the day.

We have a number of posters (30) ready to go up around portlaoise with details of the protest for sunday in an attempt to bring as many people as possible to support this.

The cutbacks in our essential services on all fronts is due the the disasterous policies that have been adhered to over the last number of years commiting the people of Ireland to cover the losses of the failed private banks upon the orders from the ECB/IMF.

We have been asked to cover the gambled & lost deals of the International bondholders we hear so much about but know not who they are, Below is the list of Anglo's bondholders, who's bad gambling debts we are being asked to cover & pay for with the cut backs in our essential services we are here discussing,



To add some context to how unescessary it really is to make our people suffer this drop in living standards & potential life or death situation, here is the value of Anglos bondholders for your information,

The estimated value of the overall wealth of the above Bondholders is,

€20.5 Trillion, which is equal to €20,500 Billion.

We have been asked to cover €35 Billion of Anglo's bad bonds.

This translates into 0.17% of the their overall wealth.

To the end of 2010, the cost of 'bailouts' to banks world wide stood at,

€11.9 Trillion, which is equal to €11,900 Bilion.

A little over half of the wealth of Anglo's bondholders covers the entire bailout needs of the worlds banks!!!!! Yet we are going to be squeezed for every single cent they can get away with.

It is in this context why we need to fight tooth & nail at every cutback, closure, pay cut & stealth tax.

We in the United Left Alliance will call on everyone we can to support this campaign.

I'll support but not because any politicial organisation tells me to..........

Uncorruptable

elvis jones wrote: »

I'll support but not because any politicial organisation tells me to..........

I never told anyone they had to do annything,

Uncorruptable wrote: »

Hi all,

I am chairman of the United Left Alliance in Laois/Offaly & intent to make the meeting tomorrow, ......................We in the United Left Alliance will call on everyone we can to support this campaign.

I am just letting everyone else who is as concerned about this that we will call on everyone we know within our organisation to use what resources we have at our disposal to fight against this in the interest of all of the people it will affect, i have used the hospital for my own family in emergencies & my youngest son was born there, it is essential this hospital be retained as is for every service it provides for the people in the vicinity & i am highlighting why it is not necessary for this to be happening with my post above outlining the international aspect that is bearing down on our services.

Of course you dont have to attend under any political banner or affiliation if you so choose.

Uncorruptable

Great turnout at the meeting last night, around 400+ i would say, committee was selected to coordinate Protest for this coming sunday @ 3:00pm beginning at Town Hall going to Hospital.

My colleague Ray Fitzpatrick was nominated as a committee member & i will liaise with him over the next days to provide what resources we can & support for the campaign, i feel i must add that this will only begin with this protest on Sunday & for a sucessful outcome to come of this it will need to be broadened & escalated.

As one speaker pointed out last night, if this is carried through it means that the surrounding hospitals will then be under further pressure than they already are having to share out the patients from portlaoise & diminishing the quality of care available in those hospitals also.

The protest on sunday needs to be big & from there taken to the next stage to include all the people this will effect in the surrounding counties also.

I look forward to providing & doing what we can & keep this thread updated.

Breoithepaul

I see today the population of Laois is up 20% according to census. Largest increase of any county. The mind boggles at the politics of the HSE.

token56

Looking at it from a population point of few it would be a crazy decision. As mentioned the census indicates a population increase for portlaoise of greater than 20%. Its now greater than that of Offaly's and is relatively close to Westmeaths.

With this plan in place the next closest major hospital will be at best 30-35 mins away, either Naas or Tullamore and it seems Tullamore could be getting some dowgrading itself. Naas already has a very large catchment area and adding even half of the catchment of Laois would increase it dramatically to a point I'm not sure it could handle.

However I do accept its a difficult situation for the HSE as there is simply a shortage of resources in terms of staff and there is not enough doctors to service all hospitals in the area at once. An obviously solution is to increase the number of doctors but I'm sure if they could they would and I dont think its an option here for the moment. However the solution being proposed is not adequate and as surgical is key to almost all other departments there is an obvious knock on effect to these departments such as A&E in portlaoise which is already being mentioned.

In addition its possible if this were to happen there is a much larger knock on effect as portlaoise would be very likely to be next in line again for any cuts that need to be made. For example if we were to loose surgical completely you would loose maternity and if you loose maternity you possibly loose pediatrics too. Portlaoise could easily become a shell of itself. I know this isn't whats being proposed but the proposed plan makes scenarios like this much easier to happen.

But back to the point this is quite simply a resource problem and we have to accept for the moment there is a finite amount of resources and this is going to limit the services that can be provided in the midlands region as a whole. One thing I'm not sure about is how easy it is for the HSE to transfer non consultant hospital doctors between hospitals or consultants for that matter. But this is a resource management problem and the HSE needs to be able to bring the required doctors to where they are most needed. This happens in other areas of the public service and in the private sector too. If this isn't possible at the moment it needs to be changed so that it can happen. If you do have this its a matter for the HSE to look at all the variables, the population, the growth and projected growth, the current demand of hospitals, the infrastructure and ease of access between major areas of population, you obviously have some constraints such as number and location of hospitals also but you take all this into account and plan your resources in terms of doctors and services around this. I'm sure the HSE will claim they do this but that doesn't seem to be the case here and I'd love to see anything they have on this type of work.

tl:dr Key point is the HSE need to look again at how they plan services and adjust whatever they need so that they can do this is in the most optimal way possible.

Whatever way you look at it, this is not the best solution and I'd love to see any evidence to show it is.

artful_codger

the crux of the issue is that it's public servants taking decisions to cut front-line services before back office functions in order to protect their own pay, conditions and jobs. I'd support this campaign if its aim is to force the minister for health to make cuts to the thousands of pen pushing HSE managers and admins before nurses and doctors. I'm also sure it'll be hijacked by the morally bankrupt United Champagne Socialist Alliance who are in bed with Unions, who in turn defend the current HSE structure, pay and conditions and draconian inefficiencies of its members.

mikemac

Good luck to your campaign, Nenagh and Ennis lost their A&E services so nighttime services go to Limerick Regional.
If you live in West Clare, that's over 50km to Limerick

People are realistic, for most surgury and complicated issues go to Limerick Regional, it's makes sense to centralize certain functions. We can't have world class facilities in every county, these have to be centralized for regions.

But to slash A&E for a large areas is reckless. Even if the Nenagh or Ennis were open to stablize a heart attack for example, you can transfer later. Now you drive 30, 40 or 50km to Limerick. You'll say I'm being dramatic but that can be a death sentance.

Point of my offtopic post?
I think the good people of Laois/Offaly should use this as an example. What's happening now has been done before so use it as a case study

Laois is a growing county and more urban then Tipp or Clare so you definitly need the services. Look at what happened, what mistakes were made and bring it up in meetings

I also dislike political groups jumping in and this happens everywhere.
If the HSE proposed to cut back office functions (like 2,000 HR people in HSE when 700 people are required), the ULA would scream over it but some cuts are necessary.
How do the HSE need 2,000 staff in Human Resources??
If the HSE can't cut back office jobs they cut front line ones but the ULA oppose everything

Danno

Feck the HSE penpushers, many of these are wasters that should be at home rearing their kids anyways. We need frontline doctors and nurses yet many of our home trained doctors and nurses emigrate, while Mary who has an ECDL course done gets a job in the HSE. Madness.

Uncorruptable

token56 wrote: »

For example if we were to loose surgical completely you would loose maternity and if you loose maternity you possibly loose pediatrics too. Portlaoise could easily become a shell of itself. I know this isn't whats being proposed but the proposed plan makes scenarios like this much easier to happen.

.

There is a very obvious solution to that scenario that will present itself if we allow it to get that far, the busiest regional hospital too be downgraded means many, many patients, private hospital moves in once the public hospital has been downgraded to a shell & patients have to pay top dollar to be seen.

artful_codger wrote: »

I'm also sure it'll be hijacked by the morally bankrupt United Champagne Socialist Alliance who are in bed with Unions, who in turn defend the current HSE structure, pay and conditions and draconian inefficiencies of its members.

Oh dear, In bed with the Unions is it, thats why at the ULA national forum the elecetd representatives were emphatic about not being able to relly on the Unions to help in these fights & any campaigns would be mounted independently. But that is detracting from the issue at hand.

mikemac wrote: »

I also dislike political groups jumping in and this happens everywhere.
If the HSE proposed to cut back office functions (like 2,000 HR people in HSE when 700 people are required), the ULA would scream over it but some cuts are necessary.
How do the HSE need 2,000 staff in Human Resources??
If the HSE can't cut back office jobs they cut front line ones but the ULA oppose everything

It has to be noted that there has been no hijacking by any party on this, my colleague Ray Fitzpatrick is on the committee & we are both ULA members, despite every other party having there mic time & all blowing with gusto, there was enough said by the chairman at the opening to cover the issue we felt there no need to announce our organisations involvement or contribution to the protest on the day.
I put in my effort, time & resources to provide what we could & was delighted with the show from the people of community unity.

The inevitability of this playing itself out into the politics that surround it will happen itself with no need for it to be pushed there.

The main focus now is the committee are looking to organise a joint protest for wednesday 6th July outside Dail Eireann with other communities being affected by Health Cuts which again was emphasised by the chairman of steering away from anny one political grouping so as not to alienate anyone from attending.

The relity of the situation in Ireland today is that cuts are being applied to essential services, Health, Education, Housing, Transport etc. while we are committed to repaying the Bonds of Anglo in particular.

€35 Billion of loans that were for the most part forwarded to major developers who passed on their useless half built projects to the state are now in long term care courtesy of us, that €35 billion for a start should be cancelled off our books & used to fund these services & let the major developers & Anglo chief answer their own creditors in a private capacity (seeing as they always opertaed in this way before the 'crash')

Its a question of where you apply the resources of the state as a priority that is the fundemantal one, and i think we all agree cutting A&E services should never be contemplated in any juust or humane society, while private losses of major developers are passed to the people to cover.

Protest, wed 6th July, Dail Eireann Time to be announced.

Come as a citizen or politcian, no one is excluded in a democracy.

toby08

lots of chat about if's and buts lets make it simple there are 4 TD's in laois /offaly and a government one in portlaoise , remember the salaries these guys are on and the pre-election promises made so get them off their butts and do something they have a mandate from the electorate as was seen on wednesday and again on yesterday. Remember the summer break is coming up and a lot of stuff is sneaked in in the last week. before anyone says different government ! nothing has changed not even the speeches just the faces....

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

toby08

I seem to have heard on local radio today about a guarantee for 6 months.while anything is welcome I personally think this is just as bad if true ....has any body heard this or the reasoning behind it (6 months ) ???????????

Doogieboogie

http://www.facebook.com/notes/john-whelan/positive-news-on-portlaoise-hospital/215803991798232

toby08

yeah good item looks good but on the 6 o clock news today portlaoise is still on their "danger " list whatever that means. One thing I wouldnt like to trust is the minister's word.I think we will have to wait and see but I would not open the champers just yet!!!!!!!!!!

elvis jones

Danno wrote: »

Feck the HSE penpushers, many of these are wasters that should be at home rearing their kids anyways. We need frontline doctors and nurses yet many of our home trained doctors and nurses emigrate, while Mary who has an ECDL course done gets a job in the HSE. Madness.

What do you mean by that ?

toby08

regardless of promises made this does not look good folks................http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ten-additional-hospitals-pose-significant-risk-160397.html

civdef

It's true though isn't it? Any of us living in the catchment area will freely admit that for anything serious, they'd rather take their chances elsewhere.

I'm all for keeping Portlaoise Hospital, but I'd also like it to be a place where quality treatment is available for patients they admit.

In an ideal world that report would be seen as outlining aspects they can improve, rather than a shopping list of places to cut

toby08

I think the only one to benefit from hospital cuts will be Fine Gael TD's like mr naughton who will be one of the very few fine gael or labour TD's to get re-elected next time.... one of FF's mistakes was they forgot that issues are local. Did any one notice that in this time of cut backs he opened a new facility in mayo ?????? Mr Kenny that is........

MickShamrock

Doogieboogie wrote: »

http://www.facebook.com/notes/john-whelan/positive-news-on-portlaoise-hospital/215803991798232

Wouldn't believe a word that opportunist says.

Sad state of affairs that this thread has less posts that a thread about a horse being outside. :pac:

toby08

heres an interesting link.............http://www.thejournal.ie/president-signs-emergency-laws-to-tackle-shortage-of-junior-doctors-173551-Jul2011/?utm_source=shortlink
a quote is as follows "The law creates a new category in the register of medical practitioners, where applicants can pass a new assessment set down by the Medical Council, which will then assigned the doctors to suitable posts.
A note accompanying the bill said that non-EU doctors were reluctant to sit the current PRES exam for healthcare positions, which has a high failure rate and which is considered more geared towards recent graduates.
Hundreds of doctors from India and Pakistan have begun arriving in Ireland in recent days ahead of Monday’s changeover, which will expose major staff shortages in the health services as a result of a reduction in the number of new medical graduates."
may be I am misreading this but to me it seems to be a definite lowering of standards .....anyone agree ????????. we all need quicker legislation but sometimes knee jerk reactions can lead to serious mistakes. If the report is true I sincerly hope the HSE has upped its public liability insurance oh sorry thats the tax payer again.!!!!!

**Vai**

MickShamrock wrote: »

Sad state of affairs that this thread has less posts that a thread about a horse being outside. :pac:

The same situation has a song written about it, wheres our hospital song??

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

toby08

Hi Veles , to answer your question re TD's I know the following is about roscommon not portlaoise but the politicians are the same ...from the Sunday business post today..............
The Sunday Business Post has revealed a tape of a speech made by Enda Kenny in Roscommon town last February, prior to the general election.
In the recording he vows to protect and defend the accident and emergency services at Roscommon Hospital.
Mr Kenny has denied he made election promises about the hospital that he cannot deliver."

so the same old story promise till you get your well paid job then feck you jack im ok.

toby08

after old forked tongued Kenny's performance at the weekend it is obvious what the closure strategy is... ""it is a danger to patients so reduce services" look at the ones being mentioned again !! I find it strange that gov politicians said about portlaoise only last week that there would be no shortfall check a certain labour statement as well and suddenly look at the hospitals being mentioned again in Today's press......Accident and emergency services are expected to be hardest hit, accounting for around 70 of the vacancies as junior doctors nationwide move into new six-month training posts. Emergency units at Limerick, Tullamore, Portlaoise, Mullingar and Naas are among those which now have insufficient junior doctors, the Irish Independent reports. Patients could face delays as a shortage of staff combines with medics unfamiliar with new surroundings.
A spokesman for the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine told the Irish Daily Mail (print edition): “We have cancelled all annual leave and study leave and, to be honest, the consultants in emergency medicine are at the end of their tether.”
However, the HSE insisted that patient care would not suffer no “significant impact”, adding that the staffing situation was “much improved”, the Irish Times reports. There had been fears that the junior doctor shortfall could be as high as 400 among the 4,660 total junior doctor posts.
this is outragous people have a right to be angry services are being cut by an organisation that cant even keep its own accounts in order !!!!! Today's press again.......
THE HSE HAS insisted there have been “significant changes” since its employees spent thousands of euro on trips abroad and expensive gifts.
An internal investigation into the HSE Employers Agency (EA) found staff there billed taxpayers for a series of huge expense claims between 2006 and 2009. The claims revealed by the Irish Examiner include almost €2,000 for one employee to attend a conference in Brussels, close to €6,000 in tips and gifts (including a €200 tip left for one meal), and nearly €40,000 in work mobile bills – many from staff who were not entitled to work mobiles.
Calls were made to countries including Benin, Christmas Island, Nigeria and New Zealand which did not appear to be on HSE business. Employees also claimed €705 for candlesticks and a lamp, and €273.50 for flowers on an office credit card which was cancelled when its user retired.
ah but its all right Some poor executive will probably have to retire early on a massive pension as a result of this and we the taxpayer will fork out for it

DJCR

MickShamrock wrote: »

Wouldn't believe a word that opportunist says.

Sad state of affairs that this thread has less posts that a thread about a horse being outside. :pac:

Veles wrote: »

Where is our public representatives in all this?our TD's what are they doing to prevent this?

Charlie Flanagan tweeted the following:-

I cant accept Labour proposals for Portlaoise hospital. No discussions with staff or trade unions. Not govt policy. Policy on the hoof !
10 Jul Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

Ok so we have John Whelan (lab) saying one thing and Charlie Flanagan (FG) saying that Labour are saying another thing. This is really worrying from my point of view because by the looks of it the government doesn't have a stance on Portlaoise hospital.

Flanagan has already been burned once by FG with being passed over for a ministry (try to heave Enda) will he risk it and stand against the government?

Brian Stanley is a good man, he's obviously against this and has been out to that effect, however what worries me here is the alternative question. How will you pay for it? What are you willing to give up instead and all we'll get is the same SF/ULA Spiel.

Sean Flemming is there but like Brian is not in Government and therefore doesn't really have a say in whats going on, but seen as the government appear not to have made up their minds they do have a real chance to influence the decision.

But until the government know and more specifically Dr. Reilly knows, Portlaoise hospital is still in danger.

toby08

there is a stance on Portlaoise hospital it is one of the 10 to be downgraded.in the last thread labour say one thing fine gael say another ....look at enda Kenny with roscommon so that is where fine gaels commitment is. If eamon gilmore can ensure the survival of the one in his own back yard he will be happy out. If you look at Charlie flanagans web page he has also stated that HIQA has not visited portlaoise, they have been in portlaoise in the last 3 years....in reality the first concrete info that portlaoise and their catchment area will have will be a HSE announcement So lets hope for fine weather otherwise the only thing we will get from demonstrating is wet god forbid dont get sick you will have no where to go.............Folks dont forget that once the pruning starts where will it finish !!!!!! maternity or paeds next ..do you believe their promises I dont so keep this campaign going until there is no doubt !!!!!!!!!!!

madred006

Simple we cannot afford it so let it close keep the morgue open and outpatients clinic and have one centre of excellence in Tullamore .Sooner the better too.

toby08

just cant wait to drive to tullamore a 3 o clock in the morning with a sick child not funny !!!!

Sean9015

toby08 wrote: »

just cant wait to drive to tullamore a 3 o clock in the morning with a sick child not funny !!!!

Forget Tullamore. Paediatric A&E would be Kilkenny, Tallaght or Crumlin! Despie nearly brand new (and very good) facilities at Portlaoise.