Campaigning to stop health service cuts

Socialist Party Members with their petition

Pictured: Members of the Socialist Party with their petition to stop proposed cuts in the HSE

Fears continue for the future of the Accident and Emergency department at St. John’s Hospital, as well as the future of other services in the midwest including those at Nenagh and Ennis hospitals.

Campaigning to stop planned health cuts have kicked off in the region this week with members of the Socialist Party collecting 5,000 signatures in a petition over the weekend in the City Centre.

A public forum on the proposed cuts is also set to take place on July 29th at the Pery Hotel.

In a statement on the cuts, Socialist Party spokesperson for Limerick Cian Prenderville had this to say;

The threat to St.John’s is both real and dangerous. One in four beds at the hospital have been shut down in the last year due to lack of resources. The HSE still haven’t published the Teamwork report, but all the evidence suggests they are implementing it by stealth. Another recent leak confirmed their plans to shut Nenagh A&E, and now the HSE have announced 112 health jobs to go in Limerick. Well, I say enough is enough – we need to use this forum on July 29th to get organised and build a campaign to stop the cuts

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 7:25 pm and is filed under All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

starkie

very funny julio
and because you have given me a laugh you are forgiven for your cock up. come back julio alls forgiven

Julio

In a shocking admission of fault on my part, Roberto Duran was actually from Panama. I was confusing him with Felix Savon.

I shall refrain from posting on this blog for two weeks out of shame.

starkie

yes hazel.
it seems to have died asudden death. i have been bored stiff for the last few days with the lack of chat on limerick blogger. i think bock the robber went fishing. he usually comes on with crap but it gets things going. i always like your blogs hazel. i dont always agree but thats not the point keep blogging bye

Hazel

wheres everyone on limerick blog i notice it hasent been updated for a few days

Pat

Great to see young people getting up off their backsides

wanderingsodacake

I'm not sure anybody has a problem with the admin staff themselves. However the efficiency at which they can perform their jobs is terrible due to outdated practices. This lead to time being wasted, the need for more and more staff and the logical extension of this is lots of money required to feed the beast. I'm talking about hand writing reports that later have to be typed into a PC and things like that. Jobs being repeated unnecessarily due to the work practice being outdated. A lot of such issues have simple solutions. A simple look at how any efficient manufacturing plant handles it's admin will provide most of them. Actually, looking at a Pharma or Medical Device Company might be an idea as they have really stringent procedure to adhere to due to the FDA's requirements and they still run a lot more efficiently than the HSE.

gothicmac

"to the point" who r u referring to as "pesky skater boys"

gert

my aunt died in a state funded nursing home in limerick recently. the admin staff were the only ones who gave us respect and sympathy. We found the nursing staff straight and hard and thats the way it is. Where as admin office was most respectful and sympathetic......so there is 2 sides to every story. we came back and gave choc to admin....not the ward. and we did that on purpose.....
we found the death registraton staff awful. Rude and abrupt...so that shows theres always a few sides, not just 2 to every story

missty

and the really bad staff will always be there and will be protected...this also needs to change. And fast.....why would anyone talented and clever want to stay in a place when someome that does nothing all day gets paid more then them....simple question

missty

I agree with the response about spelling. how desperate and pathetic have you to be to comment about spelling. I alos want to raise the issue about everyone pickin on hse admin staff, the majority of time its the admin staff that have to deal with the main probs. like why wasnt my family member seen fast enough, how long for appointments how long for waiting lists etc......remember they are only doing what someone else tells them. but they get the crap of dealing with the public. also remember that the really good staff get paid the same as the really bad staff. there is no performance review in the HSE. Absolute crying shame and totally unacceptable. the good staff that we have all met get paid the same as the rellly bad staff whom we have all also met. untill this changes nothing else will....

To the point

Its those pesky skater boys again lol

Julio

'Appologies'

pnarf

On a side note, I'm always happy to learn from a country that gave us Roberto Duran and such lovely rum.

Cian Prendiville

Unfortunately we realised the misspelling of co-location after the file was sent to the printers. We corrected it on the leaflets. Part of the problem was that collocation is actually a word, so spell check missed it. Appologies to all those who get severly upset when they read mistaken spellings, but genuinely - thanks Marydan for the encouragement, hopefully I'll see you at the forum.

Just a small point: the forum is organised by the Campaign for a Real Public Health Service, not the Socialist Party, though we are supporting it and campaigning against health cuts too. The Socialist Party, and our public representative Joe Higgins, have never sung the praises of the stalinist dictatorships in Cuba and N. Korea. We stand for workers democracy - true socialism - in those countries. But that is really not the point, though we can learn a lot from Cuba's health system.

Hope to see you all next Tuesday!

Hoof

Of the 112 HSE jobs to go in Limerick, anyone know how many are administrative/social/PC//PR versus actual hospital (i.e. front-line staff) related?

Mind you, got to admit anytime I see a "Socialist Party" meeting announced I get the feeling it will turn into little more than an anti-capitalist tirade with plenty of rhetoric on how good life is in Cuba and North Korea.

Just hope they bring along some real facts and figures on how to properly finance what has become a revenue eating monster (€15 billion p.a.now is it?). It might not sit well into the Socialist Party agenda to talk about cutting jobs from the public service, but the fact remains that no-one - and not least the current government - seems prepared to tackle the across-the-board duplication/triplication of admin. "jobs" in the HSE's offices since the scrapping of the old Health Boards. All while the hospitals are under-staffed bug factories that strike the fear of fuck into anyone unfortunate enough to get so sick they have to present at one of them.

When someone has the balls to take on that particular elephant in the HSE room, I'll be happy to listen. Until then, like it or not, the co-location argument will be neither here nor there to the patient with enough money to stay away from the Public Wards.

rr

they dont look old enough to vote never mind be part of a "political party"

marydan

Could somebody tell them how to spell co-location. It's not collocation as on their poster. Fair play to them for their efforts.

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Campaigning to stop health service cuts