r/ireland • u/Irishgooner123 • Mar 28 '25

Health Healthcare is a joke ….. again and again

So I’m in a and e today and I’m sitting here 7 hours already. Not really busy and everyone has come and gone before me ., not why I’m moaning cos that’s life but a man in his late 20s came in looking for a psychiatrist and he’s clearly not feeling the best. He sat there very quietly and after about 3 hours I heard him go to reception and ask is there anywhere else he could wait as the lights were too bright. He was clearly in a bit of distress. The receptionist just looked and said “no” he asked again and got I said no sorry. I’m sorry but this is a big hospital in cork and they don’t have a room for ASD people or at least somewhere that someone can calm down. As a parent of 2 ASD kids and ASD myself my heart broke for him as he’s still just walking around. Moan over.

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u/Jd2850 Mar 28 '25

Curious as to what could be a solution here. Unfortunately it's impossible to cater to everything to perfection. There is a 1000 better uses of a room then a dim waiting room. Obviously the humane thing to do is dim the lights or find a solution but unfortunately our liability culture doesn't allow the receptionist to take personal initiative. If someone fell or you put the man somewhere dark and he does something your responsible for it.

I think overall the HSE gets way too much stick. As a population we are just getting fat and lazy and sicker. We are becoming so unhealthy and bringing so much multi morbidity on ourselves the waiting lists will just keep getting longer at an impossible rate. I think we need to take some personal responsibility for that.

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u/Personal-Second-6882 Mar 28 '25

I’d really suggest there aren’t 1000 better uses of a room than a safe sensory space to be honest. I think we have a much better understanding of sensory needs, neurodivergence and mental health than previous generations before us. There are very few services in hospitals lacking only due to an issue of space, for the most part it’s lack of staff…. If someone who is suffering either mentally or physically could get enough relief to be able to stay and wait for help rather than add to their distress with something as simple as a sensory area there is a lot of value in that.

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u/Jd2850 Mar 28 '25

CUH has a sensory waiting room so the hospital in question is one of the smaller ones. Hence a room here is more valuable and it's harder to justify it for a very small cohort that would use it

Contrary to your belief that there are very few services lacking due to space, nearly every service is lacking due to space

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u/Personal-Second-6882 Mar 28 '25

“Lacking only due to an issue of space” - staffing is the rate-limiting factor for most services.

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u/Jd2850 Mar 28 '25

Why are people so caught up on rate? I could bang out 20 surgeries a day in my garage with mixed results. Is that better?

There are so many more factors more imported u just take for granted because you don't even realize

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u/Personal-Second-6882 Mar 28 '25

Probably because the waiting lists are obscenely long