Belfast Blogs.com

1997 - 7,000 Administrators employed in Irish health service across ten health boards.2008 - 18,000 Administrators employed in the Irish health service across a single Health Service Executive.Conclusion: Sack no less than 12,000 of those Administrators.1980 - Number of acute hospital beds in Ireland for a population of 3 million - 18,0002008 - Number of acute hospital beds in Ireland for a population of 4 million - 12,000Conclusion: We need at least 3,000 more beds in our acute hospitals, no matter what state the economy is in....

I just can’t clear my mind. Lying there in the dark. I really really try. Take last night for instance. I was in bed at 11:30pm - early for me. After tossing and turning for almost 2hrs; a constant stream of thoughts and ideas bouncing off each other, I eventually got up and had some Weetabix (which I hadn’t had already as I normally would as I wasn’t hungry) and a glass of orange juice (the greatest thirst quenching drink ever; 1 part orange to 4 parts water). Then back to bed. I began to think about darkness, space, stars, earth, google(!), blogs, updating my blog, photos, updating the photoblog, next location to take photographs. And so on. This is what I have to put up with every single night. It doesn’t help this normally takes place after 1am. Each and every...

Downing Street have issued a non-response to a petition calling on them to prevent GP surgeries from using expensive, revenue-generating 084 and 087 phone numbers. The government has said that the patient shouldn't be expected to pay more than a local call but companies have traditionally lied/manipulated their way around this using the vague definition of what constitutes a local call charge (something I've discussed previously). Read more »Full post & comments at...

After years of fulminating against the Irish health service, I finally put my money where my mouth is.For a long time, I have headed across the border to the North anytime I needed a check up, some primary care, or some minor emergency treatment. Who wouldn't, given the opportunity, since the British NHS is actually free? No fifty quid to see a doc, no fifty quid to get into A+E. Free to those who need it.Not to mention shorter A+E queues, cleaner hospitals, more English-speaking staff, fewer flesh-eating bugs, etc, etc.But I have needed a small operation on my toe for some years now. It wasn't the sort of thing you would get done quickly in the Irish health service, as I wasn't actually bleeding to death and don't have a VHI Plan E insurance card.But increasingly, it was impeding my...

It's a little shocking to my ears, having spent my childhood in the bosom of the British NHS, to listen to how Americans are responding to Hilary Clinton's plan for universal health entitlements.She's been roundly lambasted by the Republicans for her 'Hilaryaid' proposals, which sound nothing more than the mildest, weakest version of what most Western Europeans would consider a fundamental human right.While Barack continues to witter pointlessly about bringing 'change', without ever specifying what change he's bringing (loose change, perhaps?), at least La Clinton has put an actual concrete proposal on the table for discussion.And to me, that discussion has been frightening.If you were to listen to Mitt Romney or Huckabee, you'd think that she was proposing Communist totalitarianism. The...

Of course, Mary Harney should quit as Minister for Health with immediate effect. Her performance in the role has been little short of diabolical.But it is worth recalling, as 97 more women fret about their cancer results, that there is a concept often cited by our Teflon Taoiseach known as collective cabinet responsibility.They're all responsible for this mess we call a health service. All of them. Some of them are particularly responsible. Some of them, you could say, are more responsible than others.On this list from the Department of Health, you can see that the two front runners to replace Bertie Ahern as Fianna Fail leader (and de facto Taoiseach of the nation) are BOTH former health ministers.It is worth remembering how Micheal Martin, as health minister, commissioned over 200...

That is, according to a study by three doctors in KS Hegde Medical Academy in Mangalore, India. The study asks: “Are lung cancers triggered by stopping smoking?” So basically they took 312 lung cancer patients they treated during a four-year period of which 182 recently quit. They had all been smoking for more than 25 years. Theres more to it I’m sure, but the bottom line is 58% of patients had quit yet they still got lung cancer. “A biological mechanism that protects smokers against cancer, that gets exercised and strengthened by years of diligent, heavy smoking. As in habitual marathon running, the body becomes accustomed to suffering grievous damage, and develops habitual ways to fix up whatever breaks down. The smoker’s body becomes a sort of lean,...

Why is it that when my bank calls me they insist that I attempt my ‘password’ at least twice. I don’t generally forget passwords, the sort that I type, but those crap ones that have to be spoken over the phone I always forget. I put it down to the fact that it will always be completely different from any of my typical passwords for the obvious reason that it will be spoken and anyone may hear it. For this reason I try to make it something I will remember, though it definitely doesn’t help that it would only be every 6 months or so that I need to use it… They called yesterday. “Could you give the first and last letters of your password please” said the voice. “No, sorry, I never remember it.” “I’m sorry I’m going to...

Gwen loves life by the shore. Whether its her lakeside apartment, or the harbour views from her second home in England, or indeed the clifftop Italian hotels, five star naturally, in which she likes to holiday, Gwen loves to have water nearby.I'd love to post a picture of Gwen Baker in one of her spectacular Venetian masks or swanning around in a stunning Mediterranean villa, so you could truly appreciate just how much she enjoys her life.I'm not allowed to, though. I'd link to some pics of Gwen, but she's taken them all down off the web. She's taken down her CV too. This is also a pity, because if it were online I could link to it and then you could see for yourself why she and her fantabulous lifestyle should be of interest to every taxpayer in Ireland.Gwen, an American lady of a...

BEWARE THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS A MULTITUDE OF CLICHÉS I didn’t have a cigarette today. You are probably thinking to yourself “Oh well done you(!)” [in sarcastic tone], whether you are a smoker or non-smoker. More specifically non-smokers will be thinking “You shouldn’t have started such a nasty habit”. The Smokers are thinking “So fucking what. I don’t wanna read another rant about someone trying to quit. Don’t go down that road.” Sorry all, thats what I’m going to do, and continue to do until I get rid of this nasty fucking cough. “Smokers cough, eh?” “Eh, yeah” Those are the words which were exchanged this morning during the fire evacuation between me and a colleague as I tried hard to keep my...

Spring has arrived, and it has been showing in the weather this week. Certainly no warmer in the late evening but during the day its actually been warm. Yesterday there was not a cloud in the sky. It was all blue, and doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? The clocks went forward an hour last night, good old daylight savings time; resulting in the loss of an hour’s sleep - for most people. I didn’t go to sleep until 5:30am this morning, though I didn’t get up until 1pm so I didn’t lose much sleep at all last night, yet I’m perfectly aware how unhealthy it is to screw up my sleep pattern like that. Tomorrow I will be getting up at 8am for work. I thought since it was already 6.45am I would be doing myself more harm than good by going to bed...

I went shopping today. This is not something i have done often enough since moving out in October ‘06. My problem is that I am not a great cook, well not even that, more that I’m not so good at putting together meals - what goes with what. I don’t know what to buy. I was never a very adventurous eater when I was young. I’ve gotten much better at eating a variety of foods in the last few years, but making it myself isn’t something I have mastered yet. I really need to read some websites on healthy eating along with recipe sites. Let me know if you know of any good ones. I bought a fair amount which should keep me going for a week or so. Though I feel I should really get out of the way of eating ready meals so often. I do have a small variety of other...

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern revealed today what we all already knew - he's half-crocked.Discussing BUPA's pull-out from Ireland, he said: "I’m not acting tough at all, I’m just saying that somebody wants to come along and say great, sure, listen, if insurance is all about going out and getting 100 people who are likely to get sick for the next 10 years, and sure make greater profits, sure, that’s great, that’s marvellous. And I’m supposed to be impressed with that argument."“Then you get 100 people who are like myself, are half crocked, and then we have to pay far more for it (insurance), and they say that’s fair. Market forces, competition ... who are they coddin’?”Amidst the virtual incomprehensibility of that statement, clearly Ahern is unimpressed with BUPA's failure...

Mary Harney, Europe's least healthy looking health minister, has really done it this time.Not content with presiding over the further erosion of the Irish health system and selling off what bits she can to her developer pals, she must now watch in free marketeer horror as BUPA pulls out of Ireland today.That's 300 jobs down the Swanee, half a million punters without health insurance and a big load of egg on the Minister's face, given her espousal of competition in the marketplace.Thanks to a bonkers ruling in court the other week that BUPA should give a million quid a week to the dominant force in the marketplace VHI, this result was inevitable. Expect Vivas to follow shortly.This health minister is a liability. Can someone please put her out to pasture......

It seems that former Naas hospital nurse Noreen Mulholland has been found guilty on at least one charge relating to poisoning patients while working in Kildare in 2003.As if it wasn't bad enough that people are dying while trying to gain admission to hospitals, then being infected with drug-resistant bugs and dying once they get a bed, do patients now need to worry about the staff killing them too?This week alone, we've seen a surgeon taking out a patient's stomach by mistake, ten thousand people marching to complain about the continued downgrading of their local hospital, and a record number of complaints against doctors.Years into the so-called reform of the Irish health service, when are we actually going to see a reversal in the slipping standards, never mind the long-promised...

http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2006/09/01/bending_over_backwards_to_encourage_obesityIt seems a fitting title in light of the recent hunger striker memorials; tonight I watched a documentary presented by overweight comedian Ricky Grover on BBC Three (part of their Body Image Season) entitled F*** off, I'm fat. Subtle, eh? The documentary team followed Mr Grover as he and some incredibly obese people complained about how hard it was being fat. The thing that tickled me most though, was the mention that in American (where, unsurprisingly, most of these studies are carried out) it's been estimated that on average a "seriously obese" person breaks 3 toilets a year. Is this the future facade of public conveniences? With the enterprising culture of the US,...