For some time now there have been complaints that Irish people are stockpiling too much money away in savings instead of spending and keeping the economy ticking over. Some ten years ago the story was an entirely different one when the government of the day introduced an unbeatable SSIA savings scheme, offering €1 on every €4 euro saved, up to a maximum contribution of €50 per month on every €250 saved. Despite demands for this 'free money' to be stopped by some public figures who wanted it siphoned off in the direction of social welfare, the scheme ran for five years, generating an attractive €20,000+ lump sum for those fortunates who could avail of the maximum top-up.
No doubt, many who went on to spend these attractive chunks of cash on houses and second properties during the boom years when multiple property acquisition became the norm, would wish today they had held on to their savings, given the current preoccupation for developing a nest-egg as a cushion to fall back on.
Anyone with ill health at the moment knows only too well the importance of having a savings stockpile with our public health service now showing real signs of grinding to a juddering halt. As our lead story this week suggests, the trouble is only beginning as the HSE moratorium on recruitment, recent redundancies and the failure to replace staff are beginning to hit home.
It is not so much that medical care is no longer up to scratch or that health professionals are not adequately performing their jobs, but simply that overstretched services, growing demand, lack of funds and the inability of people to pay for private health care, are all combining to produce a disastrous scenario in our public hospitals.
In the appeal from HSE West this week, it is noteworthy that a particular call is being issued to people to avoid presenting at the hospital unless absolutely necessary. This highlights a major difficulty being experienced at Accident and Emergency units throughout public hospitals, in the sense that it has become customary for people to rush to A&E units as soon as an illness or accident occurs.
This was not always the way and if anything, the trend is still a relatively new one. Whereas heretofore the news of anyone entering A&E conjured up images of guts and gore and sensational open-heart surgery scenes, nowadays the emergency aspect has been largely diluted as 'patients' looking for admission, having bypassed their GPs, often present with symptoms such as fainting, weakness and inexplicable racing hearts or palpitations that have them convinced a fatal heart attack is in the offing.
With such cases requiring mostly constant bed-side monitoring, clearly this presents a major problem in A&E units, resulting in hands-on care for genuine emergencies being largely compromised. Possibly one of the greatest issues is the fact that many ‘emergency patients’ arrive at A&E due to self-inflicted damage, ie as a result of alcohol or substance abuse, ultimately adding to the waiting times that must be endured.
In recent times new charges have been introduced at A&E to counter such incidences but are proving less of a deterrent than anticipated. While anyone suffering with ill health deserves to be pitied at any time, the many unfortunates suffering and having to seek treatment under the public health service at the moment are doubly unlucky as resources have never been tighter.
As much as professional hospital staff wish to take care of patients, the reality is the pressure they are working under right now is unbearable. The system is wrong and the public’s sense of entitlement is misplaced. Ireland is a nation in dire straits. Those who can afford to must do what they can to unblock the logjams in our public health service. Right now the issue is simply survival.
Joan Geraghty
Acting Editor [email protected]
