Saturday 7 August 2010

Levy shmevvy - I don't want to live in a world of base idiotic cruelty!




The Galway City Tribune ran a story last week under the most shockingly ill-judged headline (something approximating ‘Amputees left out on a limb by the cruellest cut of all.’) There are many apt places for wonderful puns, but that story, concerning the complete lack of funding for children’s prosthetic aids in the West of Ireland, simply wasn’t one of them. 

On Friday I was shocked by the City Tribune once more, but this time by Darragh McDonagh and Dara Bradley’s excellent reporting of an internal HSE West document leaked to the newspaper, revealing the terminally ill state of our local Health Services, following the moratorium on staff recruitment imposed in March 2009.

I found the following revelations terrifying, desperately sad and damning. 
Damning yes: an indictment of all of us, for putting up with such base idiocy.

So that they might be spared the long wait alongside all the eedjits who’ve accidentally sawn off their arms after the pub, cancer patients attending UHG’s A&E Unit were due to be able to use a new Oncology Assessment Unit. The new unit aimed to reduce the length of time cancer patients have to be hospitalised, and cut down on the number of cancer patients waiting around on trolleys. 
Cancer patients on trolleys? Aye, sadly so. Two weeks ago, a 65 year-old patient suffering from ovarian cancer had to wait on a trolley in UHG’s A&E for 25 hours before she was admitted to a ward.
Now the HSE refuse to confirm an opening date for the unit.

Why are we putting up with this?
4c out of each euro you earn is going to NAMA, to pay off the banks to pay back the developers, who are still living it large in their affluence, stuffed to the gills with private health insurance.

The only topic more emotive than cancer is babies. Plans for the Paediatric Orthopaedic Clinic have been blocked, while the proposed Early Pregnancy Unit has been put on hold. Now a harrowing trend has emerged: due to the loss of 225 nursing posts from acute hospitals, more Caesarian Sections are being performed than ever before, to maximise the turnover of beds.
But but but that’s insane. That’s messing with a woman’s right to a natural delivery, now and forever after.
Whatever happened to that Hippocratic Oath? That good ol’ ‘First do no harm’ thang. 
Don’t think that meant
‘Do no harm to the banks.’

Why are we putting up with this?
4c out of each euro you earn is going to NAMA to pay off the banks to pay back the lenders who are still living large and still selling sub-prime mortgages to people who can’t afford them.

The Tribune’s special report goes on to reveal that nurses are so overworked they are unable to receive mandatory training, while staff morale is at a most despondent and miserable all-time low. 

The loss of nursing posts has meant that despite the allocation of a Lung Services Unit, all dedicated respiratory services have been stopped, while the cutting of 100 jobs from HSE West’s Mental Health Services has brought about a marked increase in the number of violent incidents from patients in the service. 

Why are we putting up with this?
4c out of each euro you earn is going to NAMA to pay off the banks to pay back the speculators and traders who are still free gamble and win on our losses.

So what about the kiddies? Please tell me the kiddies are going to be okay.
Of course they will. As long as they never come into contact with TB, mumps, measles or rubella. 96% of children due to be immunised against TB are now walking the streets as potential victims, because there just aren’t enough nurses employed any more to administer the injections. Over 50% of the children who should by now have received their MMR vaccines will never do so. 

I’ve seen the tragedy of a hospitalised infant with a bad case of measles, her parents wondering if she’d still have her sight after the illness abated. 

Why are we putting up with this?
4c out of each euro you earn is going to NAMA to pay off the banks to pay the salaries of bankers who are well able to afford accountants who will save them from paying taxes because they are still awarded ‘bonuses’, which are doubtless less prone to tax, while you and I, should we be lucky enough to have a job, just have to pay good old-fashioned income tax along with all the other proles.

Oh and the levy. Did I mention the 4% levy that goes from your wages to NAMA....? Levy shmevvy, it’s amazing the amount of words they can find to describe taxes on the poorest when they need to save the arses of the richest.

After losing 135 jobs over two years, services offered to older people by the HSE have been decimated. Programmes and activities for older people have been slashed, resulting in a lack of social interaction, participation and inclusion of older people, and subsequently their loss of good health.

Okay, so that’s amputees, older people, babies, cancer patients, pregnant women, children and the mentally ill. 
Damn right. 
Hit them first and hit them hardest. 

Why are we putting up with this?
4c out of each euro you earn is going to NAMA to pay off the banks to pay back the developers who paid off the politicians who made the cuts so that they can pay off the bankers who ... yes, it’s a corrupt profiteering cycle, given whiter than white acronym respectability by those who will gain the most by plundering our losses.

“ ... another 230 positions will go in the HSE West area.” said Labour Councillor Colm Keaveney, “Nothing is sacred, only the Budget and the bottom line.”
Good man yourself. At least somebody else said it. 
I was starting to feel lonely over here.
Colyoomistas, don’t just sit there and accept this as the status quo. 
These priorities do not represent the kind of society any of us should be proud to live in.
Yet by virtue of our inertia and silence we allow it to happen in our names.

4 comments:

Paz said...

Madness, there is too much corruption at all levels. I think we need a Coup to clean out the mess, labour camps for Politicians, the bankers and the other *ankers that NAMA is bailing out.

Charlie Adley said...

Sounds good - used to be the Church that ran the government in this country, but now it appears to be the bankers.

The crash wasn't complicated, just a construction and property bubble that burst, as they have done throughout history. Wholly avoidable.

To quote your wonderful vernacular 'Ah sure feckit.'
Life must go on. You just keep taking those pics and bring beauty to our lives.

Ciaran said...

Why are you surprised Charlie? There isn't an ounce of rebellion left in the Irish, when you compare us to other European countries. You never see people protest in Eyre Square about the things that matter, unless it's something that hits them directly in their own pockets ... and even then! What other country (bar Italy, perhaps) in Europe would put up with such a corrupt, self-serving Government or vote in the kind of gobs--tes we refer to as 'politicians'.

Charlie Adley said...

Not surprised Ciaran, just lost my patience with it all. It happens to the best of us, especially grumpy basstids like myself.

You're right about the irish though. Didn't think I'd ever find a more conservative people than the English, but at least those Daily mail readers went out and busted up n`London over the Poll Tax. Be it the legacy of colonial repression or sheer sloth, the Irish just don't get off their arses for anything domestic.