How would you sort out Hospital A&E Crisis - Long waiting times- trolleys in corridor's etc

The A&E system is completely abused, there needs to be a societal change in how people view it, that includes GP's who are very trigger happy when it comes to referring people to A&E, like people with minor injuries that could be treated in the surgery or medical complaints that can be done through the gp referral system or indeed diagnosed and treated by themselves. A&E's across the country are full of people who don't need to be there, it should be treated as a place to go as a last resort when every other option has been exhausted. People are now actually phoning 999 as presenting to A&E via ambulance gets you seen quicker that's the kind of attitude that needs to be sorted. So basically a societal change of view to what A&E is and GP's Rolling their sleaves up it might be an idea to remove blood tests and vaccine's from the Gp's and have standalone clinics for that sort of stuff

(Maybe off topic slightly)

I often think if someone wrote a computer game of the current health system like those where you build your castle and grow your crops and build a city. Would. Any players be able to produce a model that would be efficient and see a fall in waiting times.

kind of like a flight simulator programme.

The knock on effect of bigger hospitals like UHW being full, is patients waiting for transfer in smaller hospitals wait longer.

Nothing much UHW or Vincents or wherever can do, but it means beds are blocked in the smaller hospitals, sometimes for over a week, waiting for more specialist care and the best management in the world in the smaller hosptial can't shift those patients, adding to ED backlogs and patients sleeping on corridors.

Has the population of Ireland grown in the last few years? do we have an ageing population?

The message is for the 4th yesterday was the 8th, rang the other secretary who was also out of the office till the 8th and this is the norm.previously we had a letter for a X-ray appointment and when we arrived at the department were told no X-ray was booked and had the letter given at reception and would have to go home, had to go look for the surgeon to get the X-ray sorted, before Christmas went up for appointment as per surgeon on previous visit and the letter came two days after attending the clinic, Crumlin do not do emails for appointments, anybody dealing with admin will tell you it’s a disaster they are stealing a living on the backs of sick people.

Diagnostic only centers as well, they would do bloods, CTs, Xrays and the results sent to the consultants. They would in every large town. A few of the larger ones would have a Pet scaner as well.

No need for outpatient appointments for xray ect to be in a hospital. There needs to be a major mover to the community for all sorts of medical related issues and a massive investment in what's known as tellyhealth.

Everyone is saying to move to a 24/7/365 roster, but don't forget the current staff will just simply not accept that. It is in peoples contracts, yet, for everyone younger than about 40, but that just won't happen.

Even if everyone said ok, you'd need need about 30% more staff across all disciplines to actually do it. Maybe more.

...its clearly obvious, its clearly not enough, of course it has helped, but we re clearly still in a seriously escalating situation.....

whos everyone! i certainly dont, and nobody has ever mentioned this to me so.....

not everyone needs to work shifts, shift work is extremely unhealthy, forcing everyone onto it, would more than likely lead to a significant rise in sick days, burn out, and on and on and on.......

of course there needs to be 24/7 care, but.....

First off, tackle obesity in society in a big way. Fat shaming, price increases on high fat/high sugar food, whatever. The amount of problems it causes is unreal, and the amount of check-ups, scans and such that are required by it has to have a serious impact on services. An unhealthy society is always going to put a strain on a health service.

Second, if you're a private doctor/consultant, use your own private facilities. Unless you're committing 2/3 of your time to public patients, no private doctor should operate out of public run facilities, it happens way too often. On a related note, private doctors should have to take on a percentage of patients that are public, even if it's one/two days a week.

Third, slight pay increases for nurses/junior doctors.

Fourth, develop a course to train chemists/pharmacists for basic medical services, taking bloods/urine/blood pressure and other such generic things so that people aren't unnecessarily clogging up waiting rooms.

Fifth, cut down un the unnecessary crap that's not needed. You don't need a marble statue costing 100K in the waiting area, or spending hundreds of thousands on paintings/photos/frames for the hallways, no solid oak tables carved for over a century by blind nuns in Tuscany for the boardroom when something from IKEA might do the job. You'd have expect some wastage, but not stupid spending as happens. And put that money into having the best equipment available.

Sixth, reduce the general temperature by one degree throughout the hospital. That would have a fortune on heating, which can be put into hiring a few nurses, even part time.

Seventh, Anybody that ends up in A&E for a drug overdose or needs their stomach pumped from alcohol, pays full whack for everything regardless of medical card/financial situation, even if it amounts to thousands. If you can afford to get so messed up to the point hospitals are wasting valuable time and resources on you, then you can afford to offset the cost.

Nothing major or dramatic, but a start.

control, control, control, definitely wouldnt cause a rapid rise in young people leaving the country, increasing our aging population, and all that entails....

Dont get your logic. The fact that world renowned consultants in NY are cheaper than Irish GPs does not equte to meaning that all doctors have to be world renowned. If anything, it actually suggests that the fees in Ireland should be cheaper!

Nobody is suggesting lowering the entry requirements for medicine. The points are NOT the entry requirements - they are only indicative of demand. Medical course entry requirements are e.g. having above a specified matk in various LC subjects, or in the case of graduate entry, degrees in certain subjects. 1,000s of people with well in excess of these requirements fail to get entry to medical courses solely due to demand and NOT because there is a shortage of qualified applicants.

Minimum charge for A&E applied to EVERYBODY - too many people entitled to free visits clogging the departments up for minor stuff they could go to a GP about.

Opening of aftercare facilities for older patients - a lot of beds taken up by elderly either waiting for placement in a care centre or just refusing to be discharged. Should be removed to a seperate facility as soon as possible once hospital intervention no longer needed, freeing up beds.

Reopening satellite hospitals to relieve the pressure on main site - UHL in particular would benefit massively from having Ennis/Nenagh/St Johns as supporting centres instead of funneling 3 counties worth of patients in to one A&E