PORTLAOISE HOSPITAL

[Bud Wiser]

Bud here has an article in this weeks Leinster Express about the health system.  Apart from that article it is time that this kip of a hospital was closed down, defumigated, restaffed and reopened as a service of the quality that the people of Laois and surrounding counties deserve. If I had a second chance and had been less distracted by the trauma side I would have sued this kip and closed it years ago.

My father, in his sixties, went for an x-ray for cancer.  They did not misread it. They lost it. They pretended they did not loose it and he was driven by taxi-minibus to Dublin by a bollox who told him that ihe was the driver and my dad was the patient and that he had the xray the surgeon he was going to meet required.  The driver had forgotton it and after my dad was driven around the country, all hospitals in Dublin including the Mater and Dunlaoire, he was driven home at 7pm.  As he said himself at the time, "I am nearlly dead from the hunger anyway because I was left sitting in the bus outside the hospitals and outside a pub while the driver had his lunch.  By the time my dad got to meet the surgeon, Mr Shaw, one year later, it was too late and he died. Before he died he told everyone in our family "if you can walk, or even crawl and you arrive at Portlaoise Hospital, keep crawling on your hands and knees until you get to another county hospital.

Incidently, the driver was later sacked for leaving patients in the minibus while he was in a pub.  That was much better fpor him than the fate he nearly met one day when he made a comment to me in St. Lukes Hospital about my Da!

Apart from mixing up two babies and sending them to the wrong homes, injecting an anesthetic wrongly and killing the patient, almost taking the leg off a wrong patient and other blunders I had two uncles that went into Portlaoise Hospital with tyhe same complaint, irregular heart beats.  Both came out in coffins and both died from infection.  The nurses cried, they knew what happened.

My mother went into Portlaoise and one day I was approached and told they could not operate because of the size of the tumour. Fair enough, except that up to that day we were never told she had a tumour or cancer despite being diagnosed for two years! My mother also died but not before I saw the disgrace thgat is Portlaoise Hospital for its dirt, innefficiency and third world service.  I saw a patient one day with his drip lead (canulae) lying on the floor until a nurse who was otherwise engaged (talking to another) asked a cleaner who was pushing a mopping trolley down the corridor - "Hey, x, will you plug back in Mrs so and so's drip there" and while he was passing he did, dirty hands and all.

Five years ago, my brother had a severe stroke. Where? In the council offices within five minutes of the county hospital.  The never attempted to give him a clot buster injection, no treatment at all. Into a bed and left him there until the following Tuesday and then drove him to Tullamore for a CT Scan because they have no scanner in Portlaoise, a hospital on the main railway link, main artery to Cork, Limerick and the west where a major accident of Buttevant proportions could occur at any time. After a month tyhey wanted my sister-in-law to sign an agreement to have him transferred to a nursing home in Mountmellick. They could do no more and he would not walk or talk again.  We refused to sign and after a campaign in the Herald and on RTE I suceeded in getting him the treatment he required.  Today, my brother walks and talks and drinks pints and lives a reasonably normal life, very reasonable compared to the hand he was being dealt from the kip that is Port;laoise hospital.

Mortar Monaghan of the Columbia Three is currently doing the rounds having his book signed. If I thought he had any of the rubbery stuff left over and if I could get my hands on it and have all patients and nurses and doctors at a safe distance I would gladly go to jail for giving Portlaoise Hospital the lift it now requires, that being, a lift oif about ten metres off the ground.

[Gnevin]

Does Portlaoise need a Hospital?
Maybe a highly equipped state of the art ER and Emergency Operating theatre but does it need a full range of services?

[Mentalman]

Does Dublin need 4 of the 8 centres of excellence for cancer? Where did the number of 8 come from in the first place? How can they already have decided where the centres should be before the guy to head up the iniative has taken office? These are the questions I'd like answers for.

[Star Spangler]

My youngest daughter was born in Portlaoise hospital.  Not to be going into too much detail on it, she was born a month premature and her lungs had not fully developed.  She had serious breathing problems and her health deteriorated over a number of days before she was transferred up to Holles Street where she was in intensive care for two weeks.  Two years on she is now perfectly healthy.

We subsequently discovered that premature babies are often born with lung problems but that the lungs can be made "mature" (excuse my simplistic understanding of such things) if an injection is given shortly before birth.  This wasn't given in my daughters case and the doctors ivvolved should have known to do this.  When she was born they didn't notice the problem quickly enough either, and my daughter didn't sleep for the first two days of her live as she was fighting to breath and stay alive.  The will to live in a new-born baby is incredible to experience, but that's a seperate issue.  The whole attitude seemed to be to take a seat of the pants approach.  Nobody seemed to able to make decisions quickly enough and nobody was in charge.  You can blame Mary Harney et al if you like, but as far as I'm concerned that's just a cop out - the same way the hospitals blame the government because they can't manage their budget.  The ones at fault are the people who manage the hospitals and nobody else.  They've been given the resources.

Because of Portlaoise my daughter suffered unnecessarily for 2 weeks and was close to death.  If it had been handled properly from the start there would most likely have been no problems.  Thank God for Holles Street, however.  It might be a dingy old kip but it's second to none in the world when it comes to neonatal care.

[Gnevin]

Does Dublin need 4 of the 8 centres of excellence for cancer? Where did the number of 8 come from in the first place? How can they already have decided where the centres should be before the guy to head up the iniative has taken office? These are the questions I'd like answers for.

When you consider that half the population of the country is with in 1 hour of Dublin 4 out of 8 seems about right

No Gnevin, Portlaoise, like Dundalk and all other major towns dont need hospitals. Everything should be in Dublin. Why would we want anything down the country?

Yes because that's clearly what I'm saying . I never said you don't need hospital I said a full range of services .

And i never said the major centres should be in Dublin only,  Off the top of my Head  Dublin, Cork , Galway, Midlands , North would seem to leave very few people more than 1 hour and half away from the best treatment in the world.

[Mentalman]

When you consider that half the population of the country is with in 1 hour of Dublin 4 out of 8 seems about right

By fricking helicopter mate For the last 5 months I've commuted to work on the southside from Mullingar. Basically motorway all the way, apart from the dual carriageway that is the Lucan bypass. I make my own hours, but even during the summer it was 1:15 at the optimal time. Currently it's on average 2 hours. If I had to be anywhere definitely for 9:00 it would mean leaving no later than 5:45, 6:00 at the latest. That's the reality for anyone from Mullingar who needs cancer treatment in our brave new world. Previously it was 10 minutes tops. Similar for anyone from Athlone, they will probably get a choice of Dublin or Galway, rather than Balinasloe or Mullingar. I think we're all behind the idea of centres of excellence, but as was noted elsewhere what are sick people to do while we wait for those to open, and their local service has already, or will be shortly, shut? Wiat ofr months for treatment at those hospitals already overloaded, while their local service is run down? It's just not joined up thinking in my opinion, it's save money now because we're over budget, spending dosh on people who currently don't even have work to do, and fupp the patient. Anyone who's had the scourge of cancer in their family will tell ya you've enough to be worrying about besides will I actually get treated on time?

I have no objection to Dublin getting most of the centres, but a figure of 8 in total, and 4 specifically for Dublin, sounds like internal health politics for me, and we've seen the state that's got us to currently.  I'm no expert but surely, a figure of 2, 3 (north, south, and west) - In Dublin - covers it? And like I said how has that decision been arrived at in advance of the "Cancer Tzar" taking up the job - it just stinks.

[Gnevin]

When you consider that half the population of the country is with in 1 hour of Dublin 4 out of 8 seems about right

By fricking helicopter mate For the last 5 months I've commuted to work on the southside from Mullingar. Basically motorway all the way, apart from the dual carriageway that is the Lucan bypass. I make my own hours, but even during the summer it was 1:15 at the optimal time. Currently it's on average 2 hours. If I had to be anywhere definitely for 9:00 it would mean leaving no later than 5:45, 6:00 at the latest. That's the reality for anyone from Mullingar who needs cancer treatment in our brave new world. Previously it was 10 minutes tops. Similar for anyone from Athlone, they will probably get a choice of Dublin or Galway, rather than Balinasloe or Mullingar. I think we're all behind the idea of centres of excellence, but as was noted elsewhere what are sick people to do while we wait for those to open, and their local service has already, or will be shortly, shut? Wiat ofr months for treatment at those hospitals already overloaded, while their local service is run down? It's just not joined up thinking in my opinion, it's save money now because we're over budget, spending dosh on people who currently don't even have work to do, and fupp the patient. Anyone who's had the scourge of cancer in their family will tell ya you've enough to be worrying about besides will I actually get treated on time?

I have no objection to Dublin getting most of the centres, but a figure of 8 in total, and 4 specifically for Dublin, sounds like internal health politics for me, and we've seen the state that's got us to currently.  I'm no expert but surely, a figure of 2, 3 (north, south, and west) - In Dublin - covers it? And like I said how has that decision been arrived at in advance of the "Cancer Tzar" taking up the job - it just stinks.

I can't understand the lack of a midland centre , or a northern one seem crazy all right .

[Zapatista]

These are very sad stories.

You can blame Mary Harney et al if you like, but as far as I'm concerned that's just a cop out - the same way the hospitals blame the government because they can't manage their budget.  The ones at fault are the people who manage the hospitals and nobody else.  They've been given the resources.

Mary Harney under the the appointment and of B Ahern is the person who manages the hospitals.

[Donagh]

Shocking stuff. Sounds like Craigavon a few years back, which although too late for some of my relations, has made some massive improvements since.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Jaysus, they are shocking stories. It just goes to show that if u want to get anything done properly in this country u have to get onto peoples cases, nag them incestently until the job gets done right. Most of us I think couldn't be bothered with the hassle, hence the reason the public sector is in the state it's in!!!

[Zapatista]

Looks like it will be more of the same in Portlaoise and the many other problem areas in the health care system.

Congratulations Mary Harney.

[Zapatista]

How the hell did Mary Harness survive a vote of no confidence? Surely the Healt Service and indeed the Country would be a lot better off without her.

It is strange.

I think I may give up and take out some health insurance after all.

[Star Spangler]

How the hell did Mary Harness survive a vote of no confidence? Surely the Healt Service and indeed the Country would be a lot better off without her.

Who would you put in her place? 

[Zapatista]

Brian Lenihan, Willie O'Dea, Dermott Ahern, John Gormley, Mary Hannifin etc. etc.

[AZOffaly]

Willie O'Dea

Willie?? Are you serious? Based on his escapades in Limerick a few weeks ago, Willie is more likely to put people in hospital* rather than get them out of it.

*Himself in that instance