Letters to the Editor: Wearing masks in healthcare settings

A man wearing a face mask outside Allcare pharmacy Dublin with a Covid-19 poster on display in the window. 

As I live alone in a village, I have no choice but to go to my local pharmacy to have my prescription filled. My medication includes a couple of inhalers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, medication for type-2
diabetes, painkillers for my constant headaches and for my arthritis, and medication for depression and anxiety.

In short, I am very susceptible to Covid and the very real fear of potentially contracting the disease. These are facts that are known to the pharmacist. Yet, on more than one occasion, I have had to reprimand the shop assistants for allowing and serving customers who are ignoring the Covid protocols and entering without any face-coverings.

Last month, I had a woman trying to barge past me in the doorway. I told her that she was supposed to be wearing a mask, to which she replied: “I’m sorry, I did not know that.” It is hardly surprising as there are few signs that masks are obligatory and none outside at the entrance.

Aside for her ignorant attempt to barge past me rather than allow me to leave the doorway unobstructed, I feel that, as a mask-wearer people everywhere should respect the 2m rule which is sadly, no longer enforced. This should be advertised nationally.

The other day, while collecting my script, I had a maskless man pushing at my back to reach for something and breathing down my neck. I showed him a small sign which was partially covered by a bottle and was attached horizontally to the counter. I told him that, as he was in a medical centre, he was required to wear a mask. His response was to tell me that he was collecting medication for a neighbour and that I should mind my own business. I told him that it most certainly was my business as he was putting my life in danger.

From this interaction, it is obvious that it is imperative that important life or death decisions are taken out of the hands of those with such limited mental capacity.

The shop assistant who was serving me hit the nail on the head when she told me that, as far as she was aware, she was allowed to serve people who are not wearing masks. I’m not sure where she got her information or whether it was the owner of the shop, the HSE, the gardaí or her own moral compass who led her believe that she can engage with law-breakers who are putting law-abiding customers at risk.

There needs to be much clearer guidance from the people in charge.

Richard Tyndall

West Cork

Abstinence must be promoted too

The revelation that the Drinkaware programme for teenagers is designed and paid for by the alcohol industry is enough to drive anyone to drink. Any campaign to reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse is worth supporting unless it contains resources developed by the drinks lobby itself.

I recall being invited, in secondary school, to become a ‘young pioneer’, a pledge to abstain from alcohol until age 18. My decision to wear the pin allowed me to seamlessly navigate the teenage years. Before heading off to university, I became a ‘lifelong pioneer’ and have never looked back.

Many people enjoy a few relaxing drinks. They are sensible social drinkers and have no issues with misuse of alcohol. Unfortunately, far too many people are slaves to the booze. I drink as much as the next person, except my tipple is alcohol-free.

I have great times in the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association. I get a great buzz from visiting schools and youth groups to speak about the advantages of becoming young pioneers.

Any Drinkaware programme should highlight the option of an alcohol-free adolescence. Teenagers have enough to cope with during puberty. On the other hand, the powerful drinks lobby should ‘leave them kids alone’.

Billy Ryle

Tralee

Co Kerry

Country has failed our Defence Forces

Rergarding Defence Forces recruitment ‘akin to moving deck chairs on Titantic’ (Irish Examiner, October 5), Simon Coveney has other issues on his mind, the Defence Forces is not one of them. These men and women are dedicated to their country and the same country is failing them and not backing them up. Mr Coveney doesnt know about serving his country. Why is this country not taking them seriously — they deserve to be recognised starting with decent pay.

James O’Keeffe

Cork City

Counting costs of rising prices

Our main electricity seller recently put up prices by a big percentage. Although they promise to assist vulnerable, personal customers with payment plans, this will also hit small and medium size businesses and shops and they in turn may increase prices or cut back opening hours.

A former CEO of a UK electricity company said high electricity price increases in the UK can’t be justified because of their energy supply companies’ massive profits.

These companies hope people will get used to it or resigned to it. They say because of the war in Ukraine the cost of oil and gas from Russia has increased. It was not wise for countries like Germany to becomeen too dependent on Russia for supplies.

Our country used to be mostly self-sufficient in generating electricity. We have some river-dam hydro-electric stations doing a great job in generating it. We need some more; clean energy at its best — and reliable.

Our government will give extra payments to those in need to meet the higher costs of electricity and gas. High percentage Increases which may possibly stay in place and not be reduced. Hopefully, there will be a reduction in the future.

If there are unjustifiable cost of living prices again in next few months, collective strong protests may be needed. Organised public protests in 2014 and 2015 stopped the introduction of water charges.

High rents were happening long before the war in Ukraine and hit medium incomes and vulnerable, low-income renters and it may lead to homelessness and emergency accommodation. Huge pressure on these renters continues. I read of one couple in their 20s who are emigrating to Canada for a better life with hopes they can buy a home without being put through financial penury.

Mary Sullivan

College Rd

Cork

Open sores in our health systems

One must surely commend the candid appraisal of many frustrated GPs within the perennially ongoing healthcare morass. Regularly exposing the tragi-comic scenario of comprehensive healthcare access, vis-a-vis securing appropriate tests and specialist assessments, they do so with a narrative woven with the brutal realities pertaining, identifying en route that the newly envisaged doctor-visit cards are little more than shallow gestures, if they’re not allied to wider consultant/specialist availability.

The ‘progressus-interruptus’ affliction which has floored, and effectively shelved, Sláíntecare, is yet another galling collapse of notional national healthcare change, proving yet again that the lofty pyramids of private hospital/consultant/insurance power are still staunchly resistant to reconstruction in hatching an equitable system. The hybrid nonsense of public/private enmeshment within a supposedly public hospital system is a continuous open sore to the system, and there seems only paltry lip-service in response to incessant calls for change.

Allied to this, the constantly festering wound between the HSE and Department of Health has led only to persistent dilatory fudge and incessant oblique obfuscation in a repetitious pattern of inefficiency, ‘ad-hocism’ and delays galore. The grotesque HSE surfeit of middle management and administrative ‘operative’ overkill compounds the whole shebang.

GPs are regularly prompted to advise their patients that private healthcare is the only viable avenue to timely tests, advanced assessments, consultant appointments, etc. Thus, the private consultancy and health insurance wings of influence continue to rule the roost, protecting their private income and corporate profit. while holding the citizenry to healthcare-ransom.

Filthy lucre, and abuse of same, has forever been a pernicious contagion trumping the ethical and moral spirit of Hippocrates. Essentially a pandemic of greed and self-aggrandisement holds sway in perpetuum mobile, while people simply suffer on, with little or no inoculation against the tide of tawdry machination ensuring stagnance and ongoing chaos.

Jim Cosgrove

Lismore

Co Waterford

Counselling for schoolchildren

I read with delight the announcement of the allocation of €5m in piloting a programme of counselling supports for primary schoolchildren.

There is an urgent need for services to address the mental health issues facing children and young people across Ireland.

This pilot scheme is a positive move towards giving our children and young people access to the help they need when they need it.

After many years of advocating for counselling and psychotherapy supports for schoolchildren, we at the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) believe the new pilot plan announced by Minister Norma Foley is a big step in the right direction for the country.

Lisa Molloy

CEO, Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

Some vital reading for politicians

Having read Michael Moynihan’s article on the need for a Kildare-style village I think that every TD, senator, county councillor in the country should be given a copy of it to read at least twice a day and also read it before any public utterance.

Frank Clarke

Passage West
Cork