a good health system means we have a modern society

i really do feel that the ONLY way we can judge a society is by how we treat people who are ill, marginalised and elderly.

this means in effect, making sure they are healthy, cared for and equal.

Ireland....
i cannot even begin to describe the lack of care, the lack of professionalism and the lack of management in order to begin, i mean BEGIN the journey of being called a modern society.

Enda, our Enda says we are a modern society and because we are a modern society he isn't putting up with anymore nonsense such as clerical sexual abuse, yes, he announced this in the Dail.  Is it easy to forget?

but what he fails to recognise is a vast minority of his people, the Irish people are suffering severe abuse of a different kind.
FAR more are actually suffering... disadvantage, ill health, lack of care, lack of equality and a rather butchered, unequal approach to health.

a vast swathe of people do not get a health care package at all.
i mean nothing, bar the statutory, obligatory bits of caring which are so minimal it cannot sustain a healthy body, cannot sustain a healthy mindset, lifestyle and therefore leaves a person unequal, dis-empowered and out of the bracket of employment which seems to be the lynch pin to 'a modern society.'

if you have no health, you have no wealth.
the saying says so.

Ireland is brilliant at doing 'health forecast to achieve best practise.
we are brilliant on doing investigations, also brilliant in offering its people a vehicle to complain, especially about the services they receive.
we are very good at writing reports, reviews and criteria.

lets see where this all gets us.

the forecast for best practise for mental health for instance was drafted and drawn up well over a decade now yet its always has had the lowest budget.  alarm bells ringing after a year which saw this lowly budget absorbed into the general pot and left mental health again further diminished as a concept.
we had the result of a large proportion of the population needing mental health care like never before and a growing suicide rate, numbers being  unrepresentative of the real figures.
we have many more seriously ill people thrown out of institutions to fend for themselves in the community when the best practise was announced that this was the way to go.  NOT when you throw them out with no support it isn't and that never was the goal of 'Vision for Change.'
it stated that people should be in community, not in institutions, it didn't say 'throw them out and throw away the key' and have security men barring entry to the hospitals and care facilities, which is what has happened.  the most worrying effect of this document was that when the people were in the community there was no backup whatsoever if they got into trouble. people DIED because of this lack of foresight.

when things go wrong, we investigate.
how many investigations are ongoing at present, and at what cost?
why not disallow things to go wrong in the first place, which is achievable in many instances yet still the investigations do not bring change for the better nor bring a clarity of knowledge and foresight, vowing never to make the same mistakes again.
we are just good at it, the investigation bits.

we have a few vehicles which allow everyone the right to complain of poor services, no services and down right wicked practises and procedures.
where does that get us?
we know that more people are making complaints.
where do the stats go for these, they are not in the public domain.
nor are the results of the complaints, many go un-investigated and those who investigate are sometimes the boss of the department to which the worker belongs!
in once case i know of a HSE official investigated a complaint about a practise which she herself put in place so effectively she was investigating herself and the result of this investigation found the practise should not have happened which is incredibly bizarre by any one's standards, only in Ireland can we see this happen.

we see this happen because of enmeshment between departments, lack of transparency and a small country which doesn't seem to understand - you do not investigate yourself!

when Irish professionals write reports and do investigations the one thing that is on their mind is wait for it - repercussion - for themselves, as an organisation and i am specifically saying here Health for this is what i know about, but its probably the same for Dail Eireann and also any state or semi-state body (Irish water)s.

management -
we are out on our own in this department.
we wouldn't even know what that means if it was near  to and equated to a wet fish slapped across our laughing faces.

little things tell you we do not understand this, again in health for this is my experience

....an official travels 40miles to sort the issue of a cushion for a wheelchair.
....the cushion is duly  delivered after a few visits, (only dealing with a cushion).
....phone call...what type of cushion did i give you.
answer:  it was standard.
response:  oh was it.

....the official drives 40miles to check.
response:  oh, yes, standard, you are right.

....sorting a bath chair for a disabled person.

...an official drives 40miles to measure the bath.
...the official rings.
....i need to make a visit again to look at the bath.
...response:  oh, did you not look at the bath the last time?
...answer:  yes, but i forgot my measuring tape!

she had driven 40miles
she was to drive 40 miles back to her catchment area.
she then was to drive another 80 miles just to carry a measuring tape on her person and measure a bath.
result:  we can't sort that problem now.
meaning after the measuring!

...an official arrives with a company supplier of a wheelchair.
...two vehicles, one containing the wheelchair.
...big smiles
...here is your wheelchair
response:  is this temporary, i was told i was getting a temporary one.
answer:  oh, were you, we don't know anything about that.
man with the wheelchair, starts to bring wheelchair back to van carrier.
i get my laptop where it clearly says in an email from the Taoiseach's office, 'yes they say they will supply a temporary wheelchair.'
this didn't seem to ease their mind,
the wheelchair was taken away until the official could check on this.
...where is the (expensive) phone ffs.
exit man, official and my temporary chair.

its checked as correct, its to be temporary.
all come back.
next i have to sign for it.
question:  'will you be stating this is a temporary chair on this form.
answer:  'oh i cannot touch forms.'
answer from me:  (written)  Ann K accepts the temporary wheelchair handed to her today, signed.

its mind boggling crazy way to run a system.
that man in that van would have charged over 50e each way for the call out visit alone.

how many times was the old banger of a wheelchair repaired and how many times did a technician come to fix an 11yr old wheelchair.
well alot and i have just discovered his call out charge to the state is in fact 50e plus vat, and lunch!

when we then have an austerity problem, an over spending problem within the HSE and the community, the hospitals and far more besides, its the minutiae of absurdity that causes pain, distress to patients, that is the citizens who are sick, disabled, vulnerable, elderly and need care.

if we do not do this well, i contend we are an ignorant bunch who crass all over the land making nothing useful of professionalism we do not seem to have acquired in any school, university or philosophy of thought.

we just bang through walls of bureaucracy and crap efficiency.
its then becomes a cesspit, a hell hole of despair for everyone.
efficiency breeds contentment from all angles, not least for the professionals, if they were that.
all need to understand where they stand in order to be at ease and less chaotic.

when will we even begin to understand this concept.
no bull yowling at the Dail chambers that we are 'a modern society' will convince me of this fact.
i am living through ignorance my leader, utter ignorance.