Time for solutions, not for potshots at the minister

REALLY, does labelling the Minister for Health ‘Trolley Wally’, or interpreting his every move as damaging or enhancing ‘the young pretender’s leadership hopes’ add one iota of understanding to the current situation in our A&E departments? Do calls for the ‘resignation’ of Simon Harris add to the need for change in the HSE?

I don’t think so. Neither do the constant efforts by interviewers to get Government ministers to use the word ‘crisis’, or to persuade them to use a similar formula of words, help us understand the situation.

Every day, it seems vested interests almost glory in the increasing trolley numbers – while the only contribution by Opposition politicians is to shout: ‘I told you so!’

‘Trolley Tuesday’, the first Tuesday of every new year is as predictable now as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

It’s not rocket science to predict that hospitals are under greater pressure in winter.

There is trouble in the National Health Service in Britain and the North this week as well.

So what can be done to alleviate the awful vista facing patients in A&E units around the country?

Let’s ask a few hard questions – why was the uptake on the proven to be effective flu jab so low – even among health service staff?

Why are vital ancillary services in hospitals, ranging from X-rays to MRI scans, available only from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, save in exceptional circumstances?

If private hospitals can call you for an MRI at 10 o’clock on a Sunday night, can they be dragooned by the Department of Health to take some of the burden from the overwhelmed public hospitals?

Given that the situation is so catastrophic, is it really too much to ask that a single bed be added to every ward in public hospitals?

In a week when the Government gloried in the income tax take being even higher than they anticipated, can they ask themselves is this good or bad news for the everdecreasing group of workers who shoulder the tax burden?

As many Irish homes lit up this Christmas with the joy of returning young Irish doctors and nurses on flying visits from Australia and Canada, does nobody want to know why whole classrooms of medical graduates are fleeing the country?

Could it have anything to do with income tax rates here – where any worker who dares study and sacrifice for seven years and then earns over €33,000 is deemed ‘wealthy’ and taxed overall at over 50%?

Or could it be relevant that at the moment one quarter of workers pay 83% of the total income tax take?

The Irish medics based in Australia that I spoke to left me in no doubt that the tax regime in Australia was a massive incentive – as well as the accountable and efficient way the health service is managed there.

Nobody should glory in the discomfort and distress of seriously ill citizens in our emergency departments – it is time for ideas and actions, not ideology and accusations.

WRITE TO JOE AT: The Irish Mail on Sunday, Embassy House, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4