Health system fails those most in need

OUR health system is in dire need of investment.

There are approximately 36,000 people on hospital waiting lists, several hundred elderly people are misplaced in acute hospital beds who should have nursing home care, while more than 4,000 special needs people are without residential care and children at risk of abuse or neglect are without any service.

The message being sent to the vulnerable and weak is that there is no place for them in society.

Another very serious social issue is the lack of funding from Government to the HSE for the provision of doors and windows in the homes of senior citizens.

Some are waiting for over two years for replacement windows and doors.

At a time of unprecedented wealth, it is indefensible on social and moral grounds that our health services are so desperately inadequate. The Government must stop spending money where it is least needed and start building the foundations for an inclusive society.

Our economic growth means nothing to a sick person who is turned away from hospital because of the lack of a bed in a casualty ward or inability to pay for a hip operation.

What does our prosperity mean to the elderly person who cannot afford homecare or secure a place in a nursing home due to lack of space or subvention refusal?

Other specialities also must be resourced properly, including orthopaedic procedures such as hip replacements, ENT procedures for children and adults and opthalmology and cataract operations.

The HSE is continually harping on about the necessity for cutbacks, but it never sees the beam in its own eye where managerial salaries and management staff levels are concerned.

Cllr Noel Collins

‘St Jude’s’

Midleton

Co Cork