The Flu? In Winter?

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Minister for Health Simon Harris

There has been a significant increase in flu like illnesses. GPs are reporting a 50 per cent increase in flu patients and there has been a 20 per cent increase in people over 75 with flu,…It was easy to predict that this was going to happen after the event. None of the evidence indicated this severe a problem.”

Minister for Health Simon Harris (above) on Newstalk’s Breakfast this morning. The number of people on hospital trolleys remains at over 600 today.

Ken Foxe writes:

….Except the HSE had warned that the winter initiative could be ineffective if there was an outbreak of flu, bad weather and so on in their draft plan

The HSE had been keen to say that targets set in the initiative might not be met depending on circumstances.

In particular, they had warned of “unusually high demand” particularly among older people, the potential for flu, and the possible impact of weather conditions.

And what did the Department of Health do? They asked that this warning be moved prior to publication of the plan so they could emphasise the “positive effects” of the initiative.

Good times.

Health Minister says nobody could see overcrowding crisis coming … except for HSE who warned Department of Health and were asked to downplay risk (Ken Foxe)

Patients on trolleys still over 600, latest figures show (Vivienne Clarke, Irish Times)

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46 thoughts on “The Flu? In Winter?

        1. Increasing Displacement

          BS this is BS, been in moderation for nearly the entire of 2016 and still in 2017?
          Can you explain to the readers what was horrible that requires such an extended moderation?
          Bar hating dogs and cats. Which is ok.

  1. DubLoony

    Every single year there is this same spike.
    Middle of winter, colds & flu season, aging population, no one wants to be in hospital for Christmas and all germs nicely infecting people as we socialise over the holidays.

    every. single.year.

  2. Murtles

    16 Ambulances lined up outside UH Limerick yesterday. Was is a terrorist attack? Was it a major traffic accident? No, just the Irish Health System with no beds for the predicted bout of patients that were about hit all major hospitals. Probably sticking them towards the back too to put a positive spin on it.

  3. Mr. Camomile T

    Harris talks a good game but that’s all he does; talk. At every turn he mounts blame and pressure on everyone else but accepts zero responsibility for anything himself. He is the very model of a modern major shleeveen. A career politician, nothing more, but his machine appears to be very well oiled.

  4. Sheik Yahbouti

    Are you elderly? Possibly suffering from influenza or a life threatening respiratory disease? Do your country a favour – stay at home and die. It will take pressure off the Hospitals and save the exchequer any further pension payments. Eff off and die – you know it makes sense.

  5. dav

    The minister could not predict that the annual winter flu would cause extra strain on a service that is underfunded and over used..

    It appears the minister does not know his brief….

        1. Kieran NYC

          So the minister is personally to blame when grown adults, who are bombarded every year with messages to get the flu jab, don’t get it?

          No concept of personal responsibility in Ireland.

          1. Yep

            It doesn’t always work. Not everyone can take it.
            The trolley issue is not a seasonal problem. Merely being highlighted. Again.
            You push blame on the elderly and their lack of “personal responsibility”.

            Read a book and you might realise the hardships the vast majority lived through and the respect and care they deserve.

          2. Kieran NYC

            Stop infantalizing the elderly. It’s demeaning and patronizing.

            They’re grown men and women who have vast amounts of experience at being grown men and women.

          3. Kennysmells

            Warning Warning Epic Stooge Alert of disastrous proportions from Kieran once again; The whiff of young Fine Gael from you Kieran LOL LOL

          4. Nigel

            Stop letting the government off the hook for failing to prepare adequately for an accurately depicted seasonal influx to the hospitals.

          5. Sheik Yahbouti

            So KFC, you’ve conducted a survey and ascertained how many old people OVER HERE have failed to get vaccinated? Must have taken quite a chunk out of your busy day.

          6. Yep

            Nigel +1

            Kieran, many elderly become near infants. You don’t hit forty and stay that way until death. Many develop specific ailments that…why am I explaining this..

  6. Louis Lefronde

    You’d be hard pressed to find a country in Western Europe that doesn’t have patients on trollies this time of year, France being an obvious example and Germany too. But the Irish journos and the hard-lefties love to drone on about how awful it is. It’s their favourite story when there is a slow news day.

      1. louisefronde

        “Achon Achon Mick, in’nt terrible awhl doze peeple an dem trollies, de minster shud do sumtin about it”

        Yis Mary, shawkin ahwful, quik fone Joe Duffy!

        1. Anne

          I don’t think I ever met a French person I liked. Seriously yer all gowls.
          You wouldn’t mind our own home grown snobs taking the p*ss out of working class peoples’ accents but from your man from Cote D’uzur? Eh you can take your baguettes and p*ss right off Louis.

      1. dav

        Their point is we should expect any better from a fg minister, it’s clear that the problem is beyond him and any complaining about that is only left-wing propaganda.

  7. Joe Cool

    The same guy on the news glorying 50 new nurses yesterday. There’s a shortfall of at least 1000. It’s pointless f.g. appointing a health minister at all, they couldn’t give 2 fks about it

  8. Anne

    You’re basically goosed in this country if you get sick..best off hoping for a quick and painless death.

  9. Daddy

    Simon John Charles McQuaid Harris.

    He was dug up from a 1950s time capsule. Also inside was some Brill Creem and a jar of Sneer.

  10. Junkface

    The Irish political system is not capable of fixing our broken Health system. We need an entire overhaul, we need Germans, Swedes, or French Health experts to come in and fix it from the bottom up. People with no connection whatsover to the people currently employed in the hierarchy and repeatedly screwing things up year after year.

    Total rebuild!

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      Hard to disagree on this occasion, junkface. By the same token I’ve advocated for years that we hire twenty Dutch water engineers who will sort out our water infrastructure for a small fraction of the “billuns” touted by this Government.

      1. winner

        Yeah funny that he mentions those countries
        No offense but we should be looking to countries similar in size and outlook to our own

        Eg Holland, Denmark, Sweden

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