Praise for Irish Health System

[seabhcan]

Sometimes I feel we Irish focus too much on whats wrong, without acknowledging what is right. The media (almost) never report success stories in the irish health system - but today I am so impressed with my personal experience that I'd like to share it - in fact, while I've heard many second hand horror stories, I have never personnally (or in my immediate friends and family) had a bad experience in all my years of contact with the health system. I have no doubt that mistakes happen from time to time, but for the vast majority of cases the outcomes are positive.

Today, my wife and I brought my 5 day old son to a routine checkup. The nurse noticed something amiss, and called in a specialist. The specialist arrived within minutes, checked out the baby's reactions and took a blood sample, saying it was probably nothing, but it should be checked. An hour after we got home, the specialist rang and said we needed to bring him in for treatment that night. Understandably, we were worried.

When we arrived, it was already getting late. The specialist met us in the reception, and whisked us up to neonatal. There a room had been prepared with an incubator, and numberous advanced and expensive looking monitors. This must be unusual and serious, we thought.

The specialist and another doctor patiently explained the situation and the treatment to us. The condition is potentially serious if untreated but not unusual. In fact, they had three other babies brought in with the same condition that day. They take it seriously because it is best treated at exactly this stage, and this is exactly what the routine test is designed to catch.

My wife mentioned she was very worried and sad to leave the baby alone in the hospital. 'Don't worry!' said the doctor, 'you can sleep here' - indicating a special fold out bed build into the theatre wall, designed specially for worried mothers. 'What would you like for breakfast?'

They are both in there now, and having spoken in great detail to the doctors and nurses, I honestly couldn't imagine more competant hands to entrust my family.

I know there are problems with the Irish health system, but you have to admit, when it works, it really does work, and it does work well for most people. We shouldn't loose sight of that fact when we criticise the system's failures.

EDIT: I sould mention that the hospital in question is the Rotunda in Dublin, which is actually Europe's oldest maternity hospital, founded in 1745. If the Rotunda isn't the best in the world, I would find it hard to imagine how it could be improved.

[toxic avenger]

Sometimes I feel we Irish focus too much on whats wrong, without acknowledging what is right. The media (almost) never report success stories in the irish health system - but today I am so impressed with my personal experience that I'd like to share it - in fact, while I've heard many second hand horror stories, I have never personnally (or in my immediate friends and family) had a bad experience in all my years of contact with the health system. I have no doubt that mistakes happen from time to time, but for the vast majority of cases the outcomes are positive.

Today, my wife and I brought my 5 day old son to a routine checkup. The nurse noticed something amiss, and called in a specialist. The specialist arrived within minutes, checked out the baby's reactions and took a blood sample, saying it was probably nothing, but it should be checked. An hour after we got home, the specialist rang and said we needed to bring him in for treatment that night. Understandably, we were worried.

When we arrived, it was already getting late. The specialist met us in the reception, and whisked us up to neonatal. There a room had been prepared with an incubator, and numberous advanced and expensive looking monitors. This must be unusual and serious, we thought.

The specialist and another doctor patiently explained the situation and the treatment to us. The condition is potentially serious if untreated but not unusual. In fact, they had three other babies brought in with the same condition that day. They take it seriously because it is best treated at exactly this stage, and this is exactly what the routine test is designed to catch.

My wife mentioned she was very worried and sad to leave the baby alone in the hospital. 'Don't worry!' said the doctor, 'you can sleep here' - indicating a special fold out bed build into the theatre wall, designed specially for worried mothers. 'What would you like for breakfast?'

They are both in there now, and having spoken in great detail to the doctors and nurses, I honestly couldn't imagine more competant hands to entrust my family.

I know there are problems with the Irish health system, but you have to admit, when it works, it really does work, and it does work well for most people. We shouldn't loose sight of that fact when we criticise the system's failures.

God Bless your little one, hope he speeds back to health. There are great doctors, nurses, etc., I have dealt with some great ones. My problems are with the structure more than the standard of care, although I honestly believe there is a better standard in Britain. But good wishes to you and yours.

[cyberianpan]

And that is why on a non partisan basis we should seek to gather metrics on healthcare performance.

Having reviewed the failings of the UK Healthcare metrics (and having had a personal run in with one of the chief idiots who designed it) - I can say getting it right will be tough.

Even just figuring out a first cut of critical performance factors would take at least a year, implementing gathering & getting enough data 2 years ... and only then could we actually start league tabling & setting targets.

However no politician in Ireland has any long term vision.

cYp

[goosebump]

The vast majority of people who interface with the health service have positive experiences, particurlary when it comes to paediatrics and maternity.

My wife and I have 3 children under the age of four, and I've never had a bad experience with them.

From what I can see, most bad experiences arise from when people place impossible burdens on the health service.

I rememeber listening to a particular radio interview when RTE send someone down to the A&E at Tallaght to find out what was going on.

They interviewed some woman who claimed she'd been sitting on a trolley for 8 hours. The interviewer asked her what was wrong with. She had a throat infection, she said.

I don't doubt that people have real nightmare when they deal with the health service, particularly when it comes to elderly and infirm parents, but the degree of hype that surronds the Irish Health Service is ridiculous.

[seabhcan]

I rememeber listening to a particular radio interview when RTE send someone down to the A&E at Tallaght to find out what was going on.

They interviewed some woman who claimed she'd been sitting on a trolley for 8 hours. The interviewer asked her what was wrong with. She had a throat infection, she said.

Yip -I've been in those queues behind such people. In other countries the solution is to have a middle layer between GPs and hospitals. I saw this at work in Russia (which has its own problems, but some parts of their health system still work) where every residential area has a polyclinic - effectively a mini-hospital which deals with mild sicknesses, cuts burns and minor breaks, and follow-ups. The UK has something similar - but still to much focus on the two level GP/Hospital system.

I see some encouraging signs that the HSE is moving in this direction.

[ballot stuffer]

To be honest I have nothing but praise for the neurology unit in St Vincents.

Top class service.

[spidermom]

The problem has never been the service ONCE you access it, it's the lenght of time awaiting to acess it that causes the problem!!!!!!

Best wishes to the little man.

[seabhcan]

The problem has never been the service ONCE you access it, it's the lenght of time awaiting to acess it that causes the problem!!!!!!

Best wishes to the little man.

Thanks (and thanks too to Toxic Avenger above).

Well, besides the queues in A&E (which really only effect people who shouldn't be in the hospital to begin with. Arrive to any Irish hospital with something serious and you are seen instantly) the media focus on problems of diagnosis (usually of extremely hard to diagnose conditions)

There are plenty of more real and fixable problems - such as a unified electronic patient record system - which would help solve the diagnosis problem (as far as I can tell, the worst misdiagnosis cases all involved a patient moving hospitals during treatment or follow up, and the second doctor attempting diagnosis without full patient records).

[MichaelR]

Yip -I've been in those queues behind such people. In other countries the solution is to have a middle layer between GPs and hospitals. I saw this at work in Russia (which has its own problems, but some parts of their health system still work) where every residential area has a polyclinic - effectively a mini-hospital which deals with mild sicknesses, cuts burns and minor breaks, and follow-ups. The UK has something similar - but still to much focus on the two level GP/Hospital system.

Actually the Russian system is not exactly three-level. Russia has no GP system at all. Instead, there is the polyclinic - and in cities, different polyclinics for adults and children. The polyclinic has the general doctor (called "therapeut" for adults and "pediatrician" for children) and then specialists (you'd call them consultants).

If one needs a bed, or non-trivial surgery, one goes from the polyclinic to the hospital. Ambulances will normally bring people directly into the hospital, not the polyclinic.

Private patients (paying or insured) generally go either to separate polyclinics or to "paid departments" of normal ones.

The bad part of the system (mostly non-existant for private patients) is that getting access to *any* doctor mught take more time than reaching a GP takes here. However, polyclinic consultants' waiting times are normally MUCH less than the times here; and a private patient often gets a consultant on a walk in basis.

[fiannafuddy]

Arrive to any Irish hospital with something serious and you are seen instantly

I've personal experience of this, and can say that it is ENTIRELY true.

The people on A&E trolleys for more than 3 or 4 hours would have been in and home from a GP with their problem or seen immediately on arrival with a GPs referral.

Hope all works out for you....let us know what the breakfast is like