The worst recovery in history
Friday , shown to the type of polypropylene chair beloved of town halls for public meetings , and told by a charming but seriously stressed nurse to wait there , that the doctor would be in on Monday .
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation ( INMO ), in its Trolley / Ward Watch analysis , recorded 7890 patients on trolleys in December 2016 — a 29 % increase when compared to December 2015 .
On 7 th March 2017 , the INMO counted 517 patients on trolleys in Emergency Departments or ‘ on beds , trolleys or chairs , on inpatient wards / units above the stated complement of that ward / unit ’.
Trolleys Wards Total Eastern 106 9 115 Country 268 134 402
Total 374 143 517
Add to this the familiar list of complaints to which the Government is persistently hard of hearing :
‣ a chronically low level of overworked , underpaid , and under-appreciated front-line staff but ever-increasing numbers of expensive managerial staff
‣ waiting lists that shame us all while increasing the cost to us taxpayers of treatment because of the deteriorating health of those waiting
‣ and a denial of desperately needed medicines to sick patients because of cost with the predictable result of increasing the work-load of front-line staff . . .
. . . and we have another perfect storm . Could this possibly be the time to cut taxes ?
The worst recovery in history
Let ' s be clear , the advantages of wealth are not and have not been trickling down . In fact , more accurately , wealth is trickling up .
We , the taxpayers , subsidise private hospitals to which the majority of us have no access , and that allow the higher-income earners to skip waiting lists , improve their recovery rates and times , and take increasing advantage of preventative medicine .
We subsidise private schools to which the vast majority of us have no access but whose students are over-represented in our universities . And because they are over-represented in the universities , they will be over-represented among graduates . They will disproportionately fill the various professions , take up a disproportionate number of places on corporate boards and government-appointed quangos , and provide a disproportionate number of Dail members and government ministers . In short , those students to whose education costs we the taxpayers contribute will be over-represented among the leaders and power brokers of the future .