McDowell: "Ireland in the 1980s was poor because it was state dominated"

[charlie007]

So, again what we know is the present supply of housing is affordable by nature of the fact it is virtually all being snapped up.

What will happen, when more is made available, remains to be seen,

 

[T McGibney]

Part of the reasons for the strain today's health services are under is the expanding population of sick people. We are all living longer but generally unhealthier lives. In the 1980's, if you lead the lives that some people lead today, you'd simply die younger. Now, thanks to modern medicine, you are living longer but are adding to the strain of the health system. Then add in the cost of modern medicine.

Its unfair to blame people with underlying health conditions that might have killed or incapacitated them 20/30/40 years for supposedly being a drain on the health service.

Ironically part of the reason people are living longer and better lives is that they're acutely aware of the importance of regular medical checkups, daily exercise and dietary constraints in maintaining good health, and comply with these to a far greater extent than previous generations did.

On top of that, conditions like diabetes and cardiac issues are being diagnosed much earlier than heretofore, allowing for more effective treatments and vastly improved life outcomes for sufferers.

 

[T McGibney]

Couple of factors:

80s (and pre-80s) telecoms technology was incredibly clunky and expensive by comparison with today's. It really did cost a lot more (in real terms) to provide the service.

Posts and Telegraphs was a monopoly service provider, and monopolists have no great incentive to improve efficiency. But also. . .

There was no earthly reason why in the 1970s a three minute long distance call cost 80 pence for three minutes, which until the late years of that decade exceeded or matched the price of a gallon of petrol.

The phone service was clunky and inefficient because it was a State service that operated primary for the benefit of its staff and neither the general public nor the common good. There was even a six month wait to have a new phone installed.

It took Albert Reynolds and Michael Smurfit to drag it out of the Stone Age.

 

[kickstart]

We hear a lot from whingers who have to wait ages in A&E, but the biggest reason for a long wait in A&E is that you’ve been triaged as not being that urgent a case. And one of the biggest issues is eejits showing up at A&E when they should be availing of other, simpler options.

When you get triaged in A&E, you might get sent back to sit on the benches and wait to be called, or if judged quite ill, sent straight in to a bed/cubicle/armchair/plastic chair to wait for the doctor. Either way the wait is very long, and you do not get updates on when you will be next moved to another stage in the journey (tests, see a doctor, porter moving you to some other location).

On my last visit to A&E with a sick relative, he was quickly judged very ill by the triage nurse, and while already in a wheel chair, wheeled in to wait for the doctor. I went in as well to look after basic needs. We waited over 12 hours before he got upgraded to an armchair, and just short of 24 before he was put on a trolley. During this time I was not allowed to sit, as the situation in A&E was so bad that only patients were permitted the plastic chairs. About every 40 minutes a nurse came by and asked anyone who wasn't a patient to stand up, and then she and a porter gathered up the chairs for sick people.

A&E is a serious place to be, and indeed many people might think of attending for care that could be delivered better elsewhere, but I'm willing to bet that anyone who's been through it once will try any other care path first before going in for a second go.

 

[misemoi]

I'm willing to bet that no-one is in A&E voluntarily....all were sent there as they could not be treated in community. Most people avoid it like the plague and exhaust all other options first, such is the poor reputation. And this isn't limited to Ireland. I had an experience with my child on holidays in an EU country and it had such a familiar feeling...we waited 3 hours for stitches having been referred there. Had the same experience (with the same child and same injury!) here at home.