Irish Medical System

[Prometheus]

Last night I had quite an adventure with the hospital....a 13 hour wait for nothing. My friend had been decked while standing up to bullies and we were shuttled to the emergency room....

We went in at 7PM and left at 8am.
My friend was not seen for 12.5 hours and even when he was they put some creme on the lip that was cut and xrayed him. Details below in the letter I wrote to the Minister of health of ireland.

If this is what its like here in Ireland...imagine other parts of the world.....



Greetings,

I am an American citizen who is currently living in Dublin and I had my first experience with Irish hospitals last night. My friend had been punched by a man downtown. The Garda eventually sent us to the hospital “St.James”. We arrived there with my friend bleeding from the mouth with a wound that would not clot. They gave him some gauze and told us to sit down for 6 hours. Fine I can understand a bit of a wait on Paddies day weekend due to festival related injuries. But the sheer fact that there were only 3 doctors on duty is horrible. Now, my friends wounds were not serious, this isn’t about making sure I get through the line faster myself. This is about me writing about what is right and what is wrong. There were people bleeding all over the seats who were there 12 or more hours. There was a man with a deep gash on his head which would undoubtedly become infected. There was a man bleeding all over the floor despite having some minor bandaging. There was a man with a very nasty odor who was either mentally ill or drunk drooling and bleeding from his mouth the entire time, walking around harassing other waiting patients and sleeping in the back corner. An American couple came in, the woman had fallen onto cobblestone and split her chin open a small amount. No one offered her any gauze she was bleeding. I offered her some and helped her sit down. It wasn’t my job but I did it anyway. I asked to help because I have first aid certification and CPR for adults and children from the American Red Cross. I was willing to help. Obviously you cant do this due to insurance reasons, but I was nonetheless willing to help clean or something. Something to make the line move faster for everyone.

After 12 hours and nineteen minutes of waiting we were seen, we didn’t ever sleep, we didn’t ever eat, we sat there, we were finally seen. My friend DID NOT need stitches (yet he still received a tetanus shot which in my current medical knowledge is for when you are pierced my metal objects) he got an x-ray with no problems visible in it and we were sent off. 20 minutes of nothing for 12 hours and 43 minutes at the hospital. What if my friend had been seriously hurt and bleeding like the rest of the poor people in that room.

Your medical system is in dire need of reform and must be changed as soon as possible especially if you want to remain in the good graces of the voting populace. My suggestion is you change your priority system for optimal efficeny in the following order.

1.Paitent arrives at the A&E ward
2.Paitent is evaluated by a nurse
3.Paitent is put into Category 1 2 or 3
Category 1 being critical near death
Category 2 being slightly wounded able to be treated within 30 minutes
Category 3 being wounded more extensively but not in immediate danger from blood loss or other variables.

In theory this method would clear the waiting room of people with minor wounds, causing more space to be availible, it would make sure no one who can be saved dies, increase the ratio of outpatients per hour, and it would cut the waiting time down for many people.

Or hire more doctors to work and the wait times would be cut in half or more.

If this is the opinion of a sixteen year old transition year student who has lived here only for 8 motnhs…I can’t imagine how infuriated the people who have relied on the hospitals for their whole lives must feel.

Sincerely,
Wes Harbaugh

[Jason425]

that sucks dude..

That does suck. I'm an ER physician in the United States. We have overcrowding problems here too, but rarely do they wait as long as you did there in Ireland. One part of the problem is that only about 15% of people who use the emergency department actually end up paying for their bill. It's sad...but you can't have extra doctors working because you can't afford them. If no one pays for their care, then the hospital can't afford to provide for them as well. There are hospitals all over the country who go bankrupt because people won't pay for the care they receive.

As for the tetanus shot...any break in the skin, whether caused by metal or not, should be covered by tetanus immunization (usually considered to be "good" for 10 years). Tetanus is a bacteria found in dirt, dust, as well as metal rust/etc.

Best of luck the next time you get hurt/sick...hope it doesn't take that long again.

(if you come to my hospital, I'll see you faster, since we know each other)



Rind

and I thought I was having a hard time doing my final university year report, you must be hating ireland right now, I hope your luck changes and we get some good news from you! Hang in there.

[Prometheus]

Rind im american I know the system :P

Ill look you up :P

You have no idea I was going to use that night to write one of the upcoming TWL reviews (stay tuned :P)