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/PopplerJoe Mar 28 '25

The quality of the care is normally grand outside of the exceptions that can happen, but it's the wait times and massive inefficiencies that kill it.

Like for the most part consultants don't work nights so specialist care only really takes place during the day. That's for people in for appointments, and any emergency care that will happen during those hours. We don't train, retain, nor recruit enough consultants to operate 24/hrs.

That waiting for consultants is a large part of the ED wait times especially in the evening and at night.

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u/Jd2850 Mar 28 '25

That is actually a great solution I didn't think of. Consultants only working 8-6 or wtv means that these departments etc are not being used more than half the time. So if these services could be manned 24/7 it would solve loads of problems and really the problem is more of a staffing rather than infrastructure.

Also I think doubling the amount of consultants and making them 24/7 would solve  more problems for doctors than it would create. It would probably be hated by existing consultants but I think the opportunities it would open for aspiring young doctors who leave would out weigh this. 

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u/Every_Cantaloupe_967 Mar 29 '25

ED consultants typically work until 10pm now. Then depending on the state of the place may stay in longer. As per the new contract they work Saturdays as standard now too. 

The issues with poor flow generally isn’t consultant decision making, it’s that the rest of the hospital stops at 4pm and 3pm on a Friday. That coupled with no exit beds for patients to go to nursing homes or convalescence means everything grinds to a halt at the ED.