‘Cos you deserve better

Have you noticed the sudden upsurge in radio and TV ads for private healthcare? Frankly, they sicken me.  “Because you deserve better” quotes one ad for a state-of-the-art private hospital. Because who exactly deserves better? Answer: Those who can afford private health insurance. But what about those who can’t, I ask? Don’t they deserve better too?

I hold private health insurance and I make no apology for it. I’ve a complex medical condition which requires regular medical supervision. Unfortunately, I cannot rely on our public health service to provide the care needed. Our health system has been so stripped of services that ‘public’ patients face long delays in accessing out-patient appointments and treatment. Privately insured patients can access care faster by paying for it. Such is the inequity of a 2-tier health service. Emergency care is different, it’s provided on the basis of need only. The delay in the public system, is putting people’s lives at risk. Remember Susie Long? I’m not prepared to risk my health because of our government’s failure to provide an equitable health service for all. I therefore see my health insurance as a priority, not a luxury. I choose to do without other non-necessities in life so as to afford the health insurance. I’m lucky to have that choice. Many don’t.

In these difficult times of recession, many people are struggling to maintain a roof over their heads/to afford enough food to feed the family. The advertisements for private healthcare appear very inappropriate in the circumstances. Of course, the real reason why these companies are advertising, has nothing to do with your welfare or mine. They are desperately trying to survive too.

Our Minister for Health has gone terribly quiet!

Held To Ransom

Having spent the best part of the last month undergoing treatment in a semi-private ward of a large public hospital, I’ve seen first-hand how our health service operates. It’s the same old story. Once you get through A&E and into the system, the care is excellent. But it’s not all a bed of roses.

In Ireland, we have a 2-tier public health service with a unique mix of public/private patients and public/private consultants. Approximately one third of hospital consultants work in public-only practice. That leaves 70% of consultants allowed to practice publicly and privately. These consultants enjoy the best of both worlds. They do not have a boss, their hours are not monitored and many enjoy extraordinary salaries. Granted, our Minister for Health, Mary Harney has tried to exert control over hospital consultants by introducing new contracts (terms and conditions with the State) and new posts of clinical directors (about 100) to manage and monitor hours. However, having watched the consultants do their ward rounds over the last month, I’ve come to the firm conclusion that we’re all being held to ransom. It’s time someone blew the whistle.

I witnessed consultants reassuring elderly patients that there was no hurry for them to go home. I’m talking here about patients who had very obviously recovered from the acute illness that brought them into hospital. These patients had homes to go to with family in support, they were not waiting to be allocated a nursing home bed. We hear so much about the shortage of beds in our acute hospitals. Why are the consultants not working hard to free-up beds?

I saw the look of disbelief on the faces of the junior doctors (NCHDs) as a consultant announced further tests on a young girl who’d been in hospital for many weeks and whose tests had all come back normal. This girl appeared very well to me so why was she occupying a hospital bed? Why were her investigations continuing as an in-patient?

Could it be that hospital consultants choose to have a proportion of beds occupied by patients who require minimal input of care/time? Patients whose health insurance will continue to reimburse both the hospital and private consultant as long as they occupy a bed? Is this the realistic truth? I presume that the NCHDs remain silent on this issue because their jobs depend on pleasing the consultant?

I don’t know about you but my conscience finds it very difficult to accept that ‘well’ patients are occupying hospital beds when I know that acutely ill patients are lying on trolleys in A&E?

We have some fantastic consultant doctors in this country who are totally dedicated to their profession and I’ve no wish to tarnish their reputation. However, as a patient, I feel a need to protect our health service. The fact is, I depend on it.

Save our Health Service

A letter to the editor of the Irish Times, caught my attention the other day as it’s topic was the health service. I was very pleased to find that it’s content confirmed my views about the abuse of out-patient clinic appointments in our public hospitals. The contributor proposed some ideas to solve this problem, measures which would also help to reduce waiting lists and raise funds for hospital services.

The letter was headed “DNA and Hospital Waiting Lists”

“Madam, – Sheila Gorman (February 19th) notes that last year St James’ Hospital had almost 25,000 “DNAs”. As she explains, a “DNA” is someone who did not attend the hospital for their appointment. They did not call to cancel or postpone and so the hospital’s time was lost.

In my own area of Pembroke-Rathmines, St Vincent’s Hospital had 26,878 “DNAs” last year.

Assuming similar figures for hospitals across the country, waiting lists could be cut dramatically by appealing to those who have made medical appointments which they no longer require to cancel their appointment. This would also help to ensure that those most in need of medical attention get it sooner.

In the UK, NHS dentists request a £20 deposit from patients booking an appointment. This is later refunded or discounted from the bill. If the patient does not attend,and fails to cancel in time, the dentist keeps the £20. A similar scheme for our hospitals would either reduce waiting lists by hundreds of thousands or raise millions of euro to provide better services.

Could this be a simple way to improve our own health service for medics and patients alike?”

Source: The Irish Times online.

There are probably lots of reasons why so many public patients do not attend for hospital appointments but I would say prime amongst them, is a lack of respect for our inefficient health service. I’m all for making our present health service more efficient but only if it results in improved patient care. The sooner we get a system of universal health insurance in place, the better.

For anyone interested, world-famous cancer specialist, Professor John Crown will address a Public Meeting in Blanchardstown tomorrow evening. The meeting, hosted by Deputy Joan Burton of the Labour Party, will deal with issues relating to the future of Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown and will facilitate questions by members of the public.

Where? St. Brigid’s Community Centre, Blanchardstown
When? Thursday 5th March 2009 at 8pm

Prof. Crown will address the meeting on the importance of introducing universal health insurance to put an end to our 2-tier health system.

My Two Cents

The HSE is facing more than a €1 billion shortfall in it’s finances this year. Are we surprised? I don’t think so. The HSE is a faceless organisation wasting millions of taxpayer’s money every year to fund it’s quagmire of management levels and all at the expense of frontline healthcare. In a bid to address the budget deficit, the HSE is devising a major cost cutting plan to downsize our health service and you can be sure that it won’t be the HSE to suffer the consequences. While waiting to see a specialist yesterday in an over-crowded out-patient clinic at a large public hospital, I came up with some alternative ideas for the HSE to consider. Instead of solely concentrating on cost-cutting measures in our hospitals, I would suggest that the HSE would be well-advised to look at opportunities to complement our health service.

For starters, let’s look at the area of catering in our hospitals. The catering budget  must be astronomical and yet the wastage of food is phenomenal. Over the years, I’ve had many stays in hospital and I’ve often joked that this provides a saving on the family budget as my board and lodgings when in hospital, are fully covered by my health insurance. I pay dearly for health insurance and am fully entitled to this return. All medical card holders when admitted to hospital, are entitled to free care in our public health service. Those patients who are not entitled to a medical card and who do not hold private health insurance, pay a small daily levy for in-patient care. The point I’m trying to make here is that everyone regardless of income, has to budget for their daily nutritional expenses so why should the State or an insurance company be expected to pick up the tab for our food requirements when we’re in hospital? I guarantee you that if patients were  charged for their meals, the wastage of food in hospitals would be radically reduced.  Granted a lot of hospital food is inedible but again if patients were subsidising the cost, the standards would automatically improve.

Another aspect of hospital care which should be addressed, is the way out-patient clinics are managed in our public hospitals. There is no charge for appointments or investigations once a patient is in the public system and like all free services, it is open to abuse. By comparison, those who hold health insurance, must pay-as-they-go to be investigated within the private system, the difference being of course that they enjoy the benefit of shorter waiting times. While private health insurance is fairly comprehensive for in-patient expenses, out-patient expenses are generally poorly reimbursed. I would like to propose that all patients should be expected to pay something towards the cost of their appointments. I believe that a small charge for an out-patient appointment in a public hospital, is not unreasonable. It would not only help to offset budget deficits but would also reduce the number of appointments as public patients would take ownership of their healthcare just like privately insured patients are forced to do. This in turn would free-up non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHD) and reduce overtime expenses for the HSE.

I know I’ll be unpopular for these suggestions but I don’t care as I see it as the right way forward. At a time when the government is asking everyone to shoulder the economic difficulties, we can start by taking responsibility for our own health service. Every single person in this country should have equal, speedy, and efficient access to safe healthcare. At the moment, we have a 2-tier, apartheid health system where those that can afford health insurance, have the fastest access to health care.  Let’s use patient power to save our public health service and stop the degradation planned by the HSE.

And before anyone asks why as a privately insured patient, I was seen yesterday in a public out-patient clinic, let me explain. I had no choice in the matter as I required endoscopic investigation and this service is no longer available in private consulting rooms as a result of the boom in MRSA litigation. MRSA has little to recommend it but in this regard, it has worked in my favour. I got to enjoy an appointment with my own choice of consultant, in perfectly adequate facilities and at the expense of the State.  Point taken?

Some Day…

Do you have health insurance or is this something you’ve put off until another day? If you’re young, fit and healthy, the chances are you’ve never really given your health much thought. Why would you worry when you haven’t had to face huge medical bills? With the rapid privatisation of our health service, health care in Ireland is becoming more like the 2-tier system in the States. Those with insurance will get top dollar care while those without, will suffer.

About five years ago, my GP sent me urgently to the A&E department of our local public hospital as I had developed acute abdominal pain. I was processed by the triage nurse and allocated a trolley in a cubicle so that the doctors could assess my condition. Once my blood tests had come back from the lab, the decision was made to admit me overnight in case I needed to go to theatre. I was put on a drip (nil by mouth) and lined up on a trolley in the centre of the department along with scores of others, in a queue for a bed. I hit lucky on that particular occasion and was transferred to a ward in the middle of the night. By the following day, my abdominal pain was severe (my intestine was blocked by an abscess) and it was decided that a CT scan should be performed to ascertain if surgery should be performed. I was started on intravenous antibiotics while I awaited the scan but kept fasting in case surgery was required. This was bearable until a harassed looking junior doctor appeared at my bedside to announce that the CT scanner had broken down and was awaiting repair. By the following morning (day 3), the scanner was still out of action and my situation was beginning to look very bleak. Around lunchtime, the same doctor rushed in and asked me to confirm that I had private health insurance. I did, thankfully, so the decision was made to transfer me to the private hospital, to avail of their scanner. The scan confirmed a diagnosis of acute diverticulitis with obstruction of the bowel but it was seen to be resolving so I could finally be taken off the emergency list. Had I not had health insurance, I hate to think that I may have ended up having investigative surgery as no scanner was available to make the diagnosis. Please don’t get me wrong here, I received excellent medical care during my 10-day stay in this public hospital and was very grateful for it. However, the system was clearly in overload and patients were suffering as a result. My insurance was worth every penny to get the care I needed when I needed it most.

Health insurance is a complicated business. It’s designed this way so that the insurers are protected against excessive charges by private doctors and also to restrict patient benefits. There are three main insurance groups in Ireland and they each purposely have slightly different health plans so that it’s almost impossible to compare like with like. I have spent vast amounts of time over the years, trying to work out which plan offers the best deal for my family. It was years before I realised that each member of the family can hold a different policy to meet their individual needs but don’t expect your insurance company to tell you stuff like this, ‘cos they won’t. I review our policies every year to see how we can reduce costs yet still retain adequate cover for both emergencies and day to day care. There are all sorts of clauses to catch you out, so be careful what you change. And remember, it’s too late to look for insurance when you’ve already become ill because penalties will abound. You have to put in the work yourself if you want to see improved benefits. I long ago gave up hoping that an apple a day would keep the doctor away.

Going It Alone

Do you have private health insurance? If you’re young, fit and healthy, the chances are you’ve never even considered taking out cover. Maybe you are relying on tax relief to ease the blow of medical bills? This is fine although if you develop a serious illness or require prolonged hospital treatment, you could end up in financial trouble.

In Ireland, everyone is entitled to free hospital care, subject to certain daily bed charges or casualty (A&E) fees but thanks to our 2-tier health service, waiting times in the public system tend to be much longer than in private health care. Over a million Irish people, with incomes below a certain level, are covered by the state General Medical Service scheme, for totally free hospital care. However, if you develop a long-term health problem but do not qualify for a medical card or hold private health insurance, you could find yourself in trouble with medical expenses.The more serious your illness, the more costly your treatment. Those on a lower rate of tax, can only claim back 20 percent of their medical costs. If you plan to rely on tax relief to make your medical expenses more affordable, you need to make sure that the treatment or care you receive qualifies for tax relief. The hospitals, doctors, dentists and therapists you see must be approved by the Revenue Commissioners – otherwise, you may not be eligible for relief. Some of the things that qualify for relief include doctors’ and consultants’ fees, prescriptions from a doctor or consultant, treatment in a hospital or approved nursing home, routine maternity care, in-vitro fertilisation, wheelchairs prescribed by a doctor, orthodontic treatment, and surgical extraction of impacted wisdom teeth.

If you have private health insurance, you can still claim tax relief on your medical expenses but only on those expenses which have or will not be reimbursed by your insurer. And remember, if you do not have any health insurance cover whether by choice or because you simply cannot afford it, there is always the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) if you end up needing hospital treatment. If you are a public patient on a public hospital waiting list and have been waiting over three months for an operation or procedure, you may get your treatment free of charge if you qualify for this scheme.

Private health insurance is not an automatic guarantee of financial security – cover can be refused on a technicality or expenses may be only partially covered – but it does offer peace of mind in case of serious illness. The fact that over 50 percent of the population choose to have health insurance cover, says a great deal. While you may be happy to wait, sometimes your health cannot afford the delay.

Privatisation

Do you wanna be in my bed, my bed, my bed…

Need I say more about the so-called ‘reform’ of our health service?

Your Wealth is your Health

Having recently reviewed my annual subscription for private health insurance, I considered reducing my level of cover in an effort to reduce the cost. However, having watched the second programme in the 3-part series Surgeons I’ve decided against making any changes. Our Minister for Health is determined to implement new changes in the Consultants’ contract of employment, to meet the needs of our health service. Has anyone ever heard her mention the needs of the patient? Her continuing plans to reform the health service by encouraging privatisation, makes private health insurance cover seem all the more important. And that’s exactly what the Department of Health wants!

The programme featured the work of two neurosurgeons, Donncha O’Brien and Ciarán Bolger in Beaumont Hospital. It was riveting stuff offering a unique insight into the lives of the doctors and patients featured whilst at the same time revealing the workings of a public hospital. Ciarán Bolger certainly doesn’t mince his words about the public health service. “The system is shite!” he says.

The HSE aims to employ 1,500 new consultants many of whom will be limited by the new consultant’s contract, to working in public practice only. There will also be strict monitoring of private practice. At the moment, public patients gain because they have access to the top specialists but this could soon become the preserve of private patients if the HSE continues to dictate to the consultants. Ciarán Bolger believes that a lot of the consultants will vote with their feet and go into the private sector so that we’ll end-up with an exacerbation of the 2-tier system. He believes that many of the existing highly trained consultants presently working in the public health service but who are also running a limited private practice, will opt to work fully in private practice. He says “WW3 would break out if nurses were told they couldn’t do agency work, or teachers couldn’t give grinds, or Gardaí couldn’t do bouncer work for night clubs”. He considers the new consultants’ contracts to mean that “you’re signing over a profession to be controlled by an organisation that can’t organise anything at the moment.” He says that it doesn’t matter how many consultants the HSE employ as it’s not going to make any difference if they don’t have places to work. “We need more beds, more resources, more surgeons, less administrators, and less people telling us how to do our job.” The proliferation in the development of private hospitals around the country at the same time as services in our public hospitals are being cutback, is no coincidence. Private health insurance is rapidly becoming a must.

The title of this post is a hard pill to swallow. It’s particularly offensive to those who cannot afford to ‘buy’ their healthcare. Our government wants to privatise healthcare in Ireland at the expense of the public health service. They want to scare as many people as possible into taking out private health insurance so that they can relinquish their duty of care. Healthcare in this country, is fast becoming a lottery. If you’re not in (insured), you can’t win!

This week’s ‘Surgeons’ programme, the final week in the series, looks at two revolutionary and radical surgeries being performed on children: cochlear implant surgery and limb-lengthening surgery. If the rest of the series is anything to go by, it promises to be excellent.

Thursday June 5th on RTE 1 @ 10.15pm

All I want is…

It’s reached that time of year again when big money has to be found to renew my health insurance policy. I freely admit that this has proved to be a good investment over the years as I have a complicated medical history which has resulted in higher than average expenses. I’m happy to pay out good money for health insurance but I would much prefer to contribute to a scheme that funds an efficiently-run single tier, not-for-profit health service rather than contribute to what is fast becoming an apartheid approach to healthcare in Ireland.

The Irish health service is set to be radically privatised over coming years. Tax incentives introduced by our government, are leading to the rapid development of private hospitals throughout the state. Some of these hospitals will be co-located on publicly owned land thus duplicating the need for highly trained staff in the one location. Privately insured patients will soon have every luxury imaginable available to them while public patients will continue to suffer in our poorly funded health service. Furthermore, the revised contract of employment for hospital consultants is set to complicate the system even more. Some of the consultants will be allowed to work with public patients only, others can opt to engage in limited private practice on the public hospital campus or in the co-located hospitals while a third type will work in the public system but will also treat patients outside the public hospital campus. It strikes me that this system of healthcare will benefit the consultants and the private insurance companies but does little to improve conditions for public patients. It’s no harm to bear in mind that every citizen in this state is entitled to a bed in a public hospital but with the chaos in existence, more than 50 percent of the population have opted to take-out private health insurance. With the escalation of private hospitals, it’s inevitable that a sharp increase in premiums will follow and more and more people will be forced to drop their private insurance. If the underfunded public sector cannot cope with it’s present burden, how on earth is it going to cope with a further influx from the private sector?

Patients shouldn’t have to negotiate a minefield of options when choosing health insurance. I don’t want to be forced to buy into a 2-tier health system where the type of care offered depends on the type of insurance held. When I become ill, all I want is to be guaranteed a bed in a clean, efficiently-run hospital which will provide good care when it’s needed. Public patients are presently being denied this basic right. I’m prepared to pay for this right but I believe that it should be available to everyone via a universal system of health insurance. What’s good enough for one, should be good enough for all. When I’m sick, I don’t want or need an á la carte menu. I want doctors who will treat me because I am ill, not because of the insurance I hold or because they can make a fast buck by offering me a bed in a high tech facility. The present plans for the reform of our health service are totally absurd. Is it really too much to ask for some common sense to be applied before it’s too late?

A Balancing Act

I listened with interest to Prof John Crown on the Late Late show last night as he outlined the failings within our health service. John Crown is a leading consultant oncologist working in the front line of the Irish health service and he doesn’t mince his words. He believes that the consultant’s contract as currently presented by the HSE, is a fiasco. He described it as an apartheid contract for an apartheid system of healthcare. Today, I heard that the Irish Hospital Consultant’s Association (IHCA) has accepted the HSE’s proposals and will be recommending the contract to it’s members in a ballot later this month. Meanwhile, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is still refusing to come on board and has today requested third party mediation to resolve the problems. On one side, we have a government that insists on perpetuating a 2-tier system of healthcare despite the consensus of opinion which believes that a single tier health service is the way forward. On the other side, we have doctors who don’t like being put under the thumb by administrators who will decide their working hours. This contract has already been four years under discussion and I have to agree with Prof Crown, it has the potential to be a fiasco.

We have a health service in Ireland that offers a high standard of care but the care is not optimal. According to John Crown, this is due to ‘mal’ funding rather than underfunding. When the allocation of money from the HSE runs out, services are cutback at the expense of patient care. Treating patients costs money but It costs the system nothing to have patients on waiting lists. We have a health service run by civil servants instead of having a medical leadership structure in place. The policy of co-located hospitals as proposed by the Progressive Democrat (PD) health policy, is set to cause an even wider divide between the public and private systems. Each system will be differently funded, further adding to the complications. The concept of co-location ultimately means that services are duplicated in the one location. This is neither efficient nor cost effective . The co-located private hospitals already in existence, tend to be small and have sub-optimal expertise in place. As a holder of private health insurance, I can personally testify to this having once faced the decision of having to choose between standard of accommodation and standard of medical care. I was very unwell in A&E at the time and required admission for investigation. As I was known to be infected with MRSA , I required isolation facilities in order to be admitted to the hospital. There were single rooms available in the co-located private hospital but the physician under whose care I was to be admitted, worked only in the public hospital where no isolation facilities were available at that time. This dilemma typifies all that is wrong with the plans for co-location and the divisive nature of the consultant’s contract. I had no problem choosing medical expertise over comfort but I should never have had to make that choice. Why does healthcare have to so divisive? If you’re sick and in need of hospitalization, the type of care you receive shouldn’t be dictated by your ability to pay.

John Crown is in no doubt that the way forward for our health service is a single-tier, not for profit system of healthcare based on a universal system of social insurance. He makes no apology for speaking out about the deficiencies within our health service. As long as there continues to be vested interests and a burgeoning bureaucracy in control of our health service, the system is doomed to fail. The future of the consultant’s contract remains in the balance.