The Mater hospital - Oh holy jesus!!

pragmatic1

Dont know about the mater but I was very impressed with the standard of care I received at Beaumont hospital. The staff couldn't have been nicer and the place was spotless.

Freddie59

mikemac1 wrote: »

Wards used to be run by nuns and nursing was a vocation

Now nursing is a graduate career with graduate salaries, clipboard holding goes on and many wanting to be a manager while the assistants get stuck into the real work that nurses used to do

Was it realy worse in the old days when a sister and her team ran the ward?

You got it in a nutshell my friend. Well said.

subscriber

John_Rambo wrote: »

A&E departments can be clogged up with drug abusers, drunks and people who don't really need to be there. I reckon the staff must have a pain in their arses with time wasters.

It see your emergency can wait a few weeks till you get back to your own country Subscriber. Would there be a chance that your issue wasn't an emergency at all and the doctors, nurses, admin people felt their time would be better spent with real emergencies instead of druggies, drunks and the likes of you?

Could you not have gone to your doctors or pharmacist or is this one of your typical "Ireland is so crap compared to where I come from" rants that you do?

Now, now, carelessness to detail gets you nowhere... I have been born and raised in ireland so the ''compared to where i come from rant'' is, well..... nonsense all together. (sorry)

And not that I'm obliged to explain anything to you, but yes, I did need to be in the hospital as my issue could not be treated by a GP hence the referral letter. And could I have known before attending the hospital and being seen by a surgical consult that I could have waited a week before getting ongoing treatment, the answer here is no. Do you honestly think if i had known the answer to this, that i would have sat in the hospital for 10 hours? Would it not be wise not to jump in with comments that are untrue and presumptuous?

humbert

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Needle caps? After cannulation, there are no needles required in establishing IV access, nor in starting IV Fluids. Starting an IV giving set with a bag of Normal Saline ect, does not involve nor require needles I can assure you. But I do appreciate you are a layperson, hence your obvious confusion.

You seem to have used an esoteric word to say that after putting the needle into the person there are no needles involved in putting in a drip and then patronise the **** out of the OP.

Toby Take a Bow

Victor_M wrote: »

Was just thinking the same thing myself, washing your hands doesn't cost a penny, nor does disposing of used needles and materials.

I'd be fairly sure that disposing of used needles costs money.

Regarding hygiene, my only experience is in Vincent's, and, although I wasn't fully conscious, my memory of A&E was that it was of a fairly good standard. I would presume that the place can't be spotless due to the havoc that was going on all around me. And yes, the havoc is a direct result of cutbacks. All of us on trollies, with random doctors wandering around trying to diagnose us. I got seen to just in time, and the doctor who diagnosed me probably saved my life (eh, after years of misdiagnosis).

In my time recovering, I did notice a lack of hygiene. This was mainly because - as far as I could tell - the cleaning staff in the wards were hired by a company that the hospital had 'tendered' to clean the wards. I'm not sure if this is the case, but the people cleaning definitely weren't nurses, or nurse's aids. I presume they were on minimum wage and clearly paid the minimum amount of attention to their job. I would expect a minimum standard when I pay minimum wages, which obviously you can't do in a hospital environment. This isn't (necessarily) due to cutbacks (actually, it seems to be the result of the opposite of cutbacks: throwing money at a failing system) but is the result of the new way of looking at economics. Privatise everything. Then watch everything fail.

Dudess

Phoenix Park wrote: »

Were you in A&E for OCD?

Yes, because objecting to poor hygiene in a hospital is ONLY something a person with OCD would do...

Serious amount of peeps on this thread looking for an argument for no reason. The OP was shocked by the state of the place, they recounted their experiences. Fair enough to debate with them, but there are absolutely pathetic attempts at finding fault with their post here in order to have a go.

That said, it isn't the hospital's fault if there are lots of messy patients, and the staff have some nightmare of a job - kudos to them. But staff should be militantly hygienic when it comes to the space they're responsible for, in fairness.
My friends' elderly father had a fall in Ikea recently and was brought to the Mater - they said it was pretty dreadful all right, and they're not la-dee-da.

Owen_S wrote: »

Mary Harney/thread.

How? What about Cowen before her? The general consensus among medical professionals whom I know is that he was worse and that she tried to make a better job of things - things were already ****ed before she got the post...

DeVore wrote: »

Ireland is at best a second world in terms of medical care and standards.

That comment does a serious disservice to medical staff - plenty of medical staff are superb, and it really depends on which hospital you go to.

seantorious wrote: »

most of its existing problems stem from the fact that it has the 2nd highest number of alcholic or intoxicated patients in the world(Acapulco is 1st).

Fook! :eek:

mikemac1 wrote: »

Wards used to be run by nuns and nursing was a vocation

Now nursing is a graduate career with graduate salaries, clipboard holding goes on and many wanting to be a manager while the assistants get stuck into the real work that nurses used to do

Was it realy worse in the old days when a sister and her team ran the ward?

My mum says that. She was a nurse in the 60s/70s (in the Mater actually ). Stuff was washed by boiling - the nurses had to do a lot of cleaning themselves. They were worked to the bone. If nurses don't have to work to the point of being shattered nowadays, I welcome that, even though I agree nursing is a vocation.
I don't think there's anything wrong with nursing being more recognised as a profession though - it used to be pretty disgraceful the way it was seen as "doctor's assistant" - and the ****ing work they would have to do! :eek:
That said, there should be a balance between the above and the vocation aspect. I reckon that's probably the way it is for most nurses though. If you were only in the job to become a manager, you'd probably leave. It's a very hard slog. The health service itself though (rather than the nurses) seems to have created that culture, of nurses doing paperwork instead of nursing. Wouldn't need to be nuns running hospitals to improve hygiene though, just more of an emphasis on hygiene.

Doc Ruby wrote: »

in Singapore they managed to cut admin costs to about 5% of what they used to be by making patients records electronic.

Too much ****ing form-filling here...

I thought that HIQA quango was gone btw?

EarlERizer

Tallaght Hospital is great!

JupiterKid

There is a lot to be said for the ethos of hospitals years ago where there was a super-strict, military approach among the staff (particularly nurses) to cleanliness - and Ireland was a much poorer country back then.

I agree with the OP that hygiene standards in many hospitals these days is appalling but I don't think you can blame cutbacks for this. Hospital hygiene was bad and MRSA was even worse during the so-called "boom" years.

The way hospitals are run and managed needs a complete overhaul. The last few times I was in a hospital for some relatively minor tests/procedures the amount of form-filling and paperwork was ridiculous.

Dudess

Very true. The MRSA issue reared its ugly head around 10 years ago - "boom" time.

Sacred_git

subscriber wrote: »

Im living in dublin on a short term basis and today had to spend 10 hours in the mater (public) hospital today due to unforeseeable circumstances, I have never in my life witnessed such a low standard of hygiene in any hospital or any other public health premises for that matter.

The stink of piss in the emergency department waiting room is enough to make anyone throw up not to mention the amount of junkies and prisoners from the joy across the road falling around the place either on a come down from some illicit substance or starting arguments with other patients and generally being loud, arrogant and annoying.

Once finally in the treatment area, I was seen by one of the junior (teenage) doctors who proceeded to examine me without either washing his hands or putting on a pair of sterile gloves. I also noticed a few needle caps (non sharp) just discarded on treatment trolley's after doctors had finished hanging drips for patients. On another clinical table, a doctor had finished treating a patient and there was a relatively small patch of blood left on the bed clothes.. Did he clean it up before the next patient?? You guessed it....

For the love of Jesus like, if you work in a hospital like, infection control is medicine 101 here folks....

At the end of my visit I was offered an overnight stay for a minor surgery tomorrow morning but considering it wasn't immediately life threatening I declined having decided to have it done when I go back to my home county in a few weeks and proceeded to leg it out the door, god forbid would I pick up some weird and wonderful disease.....

I'm seriously considering writing a letter to HIQUA after my experiences there today...

Venture to the mater if you must but you would not want to be sick going in there or your prob better off staying at home....

Are other hospitals in dublin like this or is it just the mater? Today was the first time I attended a hospital in dublin so I don't know how it stacks up to the other hospitals??

teenage doctor? rubbish!
clean up blood on bed cloth? Doctors don't do this!
needle caps, non sharp? get off your high horse
junkies/drunks in the a/e? probably in every a/e in the country

Verdict: Your a waffler/racist and not living in the real world. I am well aware out health system is a joke but what you have mentioned is just slly and doesn't fall into this category!

Dudess

Sacred_git wrote: »

teenage doctor? rubbish!

Well very young then - you know what they mean...

Verdict: Your a waffler/racist

They're neither really - you're obviously coming from a position of bias and unable to take criticism.

ziggy23

Heading into the mater for an op Monday...this thread hasn't done much for my nerves am now worrying about hygiene:(

Wattle

Few years back I attended A&E in Vincents with my elderly father. It was like the Jeremy Kyle show but with more bloodshed.

Sacred_git

ziggy23 wrote: »

Heading into the mater for an op Monday...this thread hasn't done much for my nerves am now worrying about hygiene:(

you have nothing to worry about, the staff there are great

ballsymchugh

ziggy23 wrote: »

Heading into the mater for an op Monday...this thread hasn't done much for my nerves am now worrying about hygiene:(

operating theatres are on a totally different level when it comes to hygiene. while in A&E, alcohol hand gel will do just fine.

when you work in an operating theatre, once you go through the doors of the changing room, where you get your sterile scrubs, everything is sterile. you don't even touch the outside of the gloves you wear for the operation.

mathepac

Doc Ruby wrote: »

... By comparison we land somewhere around number 16....

17 must be a forward aid station in a war-zone then.

Dudess

Notions that Ireland's health service is third world are greatly unfounded. Crap doesn't mean third world.

Nyan Cat

Dudess wrote: »

Notions that Ireland's health service is third world are greatly unfounded. Crap doesn't mean third world.

When that comparison is used to stress it bugs me. Have they ever been on 3rd world so called public transport or in a 3rd world hospital? I've seen it first hand and we live like kings in comparison.

The only hygiene bug bear of mine: every time I'm in hospital I see the cleaning staff do the same thing: clean the trays, bed rails, bedside lockers, window sills with one cloth. I don't mean one cloth and repeatedly rinsed. I mean one cloth. Not rinsed after its used on one thing. The cleaning has gotten better over the years. They're on the ward more frequently. But they aren't better at doing it.

I've found docs and nurses great at hygiene

tony007

subscriber wrote: »

Once finally in the treatment area, I was seen by one of the junior (teenage) doctors who proceeded to examine me without either washing his hands or putting on a pair of sterile gloves.

Unless he/she started his/her university education at around the age of 14 or 15, I highly doubt he/she was a teenager

ballsymchugh

tony007 wrote: »

Unless he/she started his/her university education at around the age of 14 or 15, I highly doubt he/she was a teenager

that's one thing that bugs me, why do people always have to mention that they were seen by a young doctor? everyone (who works) has to start sometime. junior doctors are frontline, dealing with all the cases that come in and then they refer them on to the more experienced when needed.

back to the gloves thing again though, gloves worn by the majority of healthcare workers are NOT sterile.

Pottler

AngryBollix wrote: »

Did you catch one of these non existent infections?

are you being for real? MRSA ring any little bells?? A and E s/Hospitals generally are filthy but it's the crap cleaners that are to blame but they can also blame their crap budgets -it costs to keep somwhere clean, to keep it really clean costs a fair bit - labour is high and pricey and it's slow and tedious and repetitive. I have a cleaning crew that keep a food storage and medical storage facility(private owned) clean (really clean) and it costs a bomb. public hospitals are not clean, Full stop.

Ernest

subscriber wrote: »

Im living in dublin on a short term basis and today had to spend 10 hours in the mater (public) hospital today due to unforeseeable circumstances, I have never in my life witnessed such a low standard of hygiene in any hospital or any other public health premises for that matter.

The stink of piss in the emergency department waiting room is enough to make anyone throw up not to mention the amount of junkies and prisoners from the joy across the road falling around the place either on a come down from some illicit substance or starting arguments with other patients and generally being loud, arrogant and annoying.

Once finally in the treatment area, I was seen by one of the junior (teenage) doctors who proceeded to examine me without either washing his hands or putting on a pair of sterile gloves. I also noticed a few needle caps (non sharp) just discarded on treatment trolley's after doctors had finished hanging drips for patients. On another clinical table, a doctor had finished treating a patient and there was a relatively small patch of blood left on the bed clothes.. Did he clean it up before the next patient?? You guessed it....

For the love of Jesus like, if you work in a hospital like, infection control is medicine 101 here folks....

At the end of my visit I was offered an overnight stay for a minor surgery tomorrow morning but considering it wasn't immediately life threatening I declined having decided to have it done when I go back to my home county in a few weeks and proceeded to leg it out the door, god forbid would I pick up some weird and wonderful disease.....

I'm seriously considering writing a letter to HIQUA after my experiences there today...

Venture to the mater if you must but you would not want to be sick going in there or your prob better off staying at home....

Are other hospitals in dublin like this or is it just the mater? Today was the first time I attended a hospital in dublin so I don't know how it stacks up to the other hospitals??

From personal experience over recent years I am not surprised at the above. The Mater is by far the worst hospital in Dublin and probably in Ireland.
(And this is the hospital where the previous government wanted to co-locate a National Childrens' Hospital !!)

Cicero

If you've spent any length of time in a hospital in Ireland over the last 10 years...none of this is surprising ...in fact ...I'm more surprised someone thought it worth posting a thread about it...
Seriously.....it's the norm these days and has been for quite some time....welcome to the real world OP

Dudess

Sorry but you haven't been in every hospital in Ireland. It depends on the hospital.

Cicero

Dudess wrote: »

Sorry but you haven't been in every hospital in Ireland. It depends on the hospital.

I've been in enough of them over the last few years to know procedures are more lax now than they were 25 years ago....

Paulzx

Wattle wrote: »

Few years back I attended A&E in Vincents with my elderly father. It was like the Jeremy Kyle show but with more bloodshed.

If you think Vincents was like the Jeremy Kyle show you'll think the Mater is a penal colony:eek:

You're not Ross O carroll kelly are you?:D