Minister for health Simon Harris
Parents of children using a local service provided by the HSE have been informed of cuts to the service. The reason for this according to the HSE is “Children’s Hospital Overruns”. @fiannafailparty #HSE #ChildrensHospital
— John McGuinness TD (@JMcGuinnessTD) February 8, 2019
There you go now.
Meanwhile…
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has written to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin asking him to make clear whether his party has confidence in the Minister for Health and whether his party would support a no-confidence motion.
Ms McDonald wrote that Simon Harris’s position is untenable in a letter seen by RTÉ News.
McDonald asks for Fianna Fáil to clarify support for Harris over hospital (RTÉ)
Earlier: Abysmal
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Harris needs to start worry now. Vacron expressed ‘confidence’ in him last evening but also revved up the bus by saying that if Harris had informed him back in August he would have proceeded the same way. That’s Vacron basically using his ‘I didn’t know’ line. And I for one don’t believe that.
We all know the results of Vacron expressions of confidence.
leo knew what he was doing when he put harris into health in the 1st place, ensured he’ll never be a threat to leo
Speaking on the News at 1, Varadkar said that Harris would be making a statement in the Dail next week. He stated further that he didn’t know what he was going to say.
Hmmm.
To be expected; The budget is not finite. If huge swathes of money get consumed in one part then they take away from others. Doesn’t make it right but this is only the start of it. More to come… The overrun is enormous…
A dead man walking
As for the public
If any one dies in the strike he has blood on his hands
He should be gone full stop
i can’t believe how long he’s lasted. It’s like he’s doing some kind of experiment to see what happens to a sector if you literally don’t do anything at all. The man does not work. He’s all talk and rolled up sleeves photos. Never actually does any work, much like the rest of the party. We are seeing what happens to a country when those in charge literally don’t work.
I love your consistency.
Harris doesn’t keep to budget on the hospital – so he should be fired.
Harris does keep to budget on staffing – so he should be fired.
You really can’t be that dim to read the situation like this…
It’s a bit rich to be arguing that nurses should not be paid the same as elsewhere while also claiming that he is innocent of any wrong doing on the biggest % over run of any construction project in the history of the state?
1. Irish nurses are better paid than “elsewhere”.
2. I never claimed Harris was innocent. I was pointing out Trev s hypocrisy
3. I don’t think the % overrun is as high as people are making out. Not comparing like with like
Why is there a delay in my comments being posted please?
As service providers go, your crew would make good hairdressers @ BS.
i can’t believe how long he’s lasted. It’s like he’s doing some kind of experiment to see what happens to a sector if you literally don’t do anything at all. The man does not work. He’s all talk and rolled up sleeves photos. Never actually does any work, much like the rest of the party. We are seeing what happens to a country when those in charge literally don’t work.
Back in the day, when the NI natives were killing each other, encouraged by British spooks, the roads and health service was fairly decent. Money was a factor but there is a definite argument against politicians who carry a face mirror getting involved, including SF.
So Harris will go. Who’s next for Minister of Health? Are all of these people incompetent? Quite possibly, maybe .owever surely we must look beyond mere ministers at this point . The health service problems runs far deeper than whatever figurehead/minister happens to be in charge.
This merry-go-round is pointless
So what is you suggestion? Give the whole thing back to the church and ask them to run it again please?
Maybe and as soon as the church can start rounding up free labour* in the form of unmarried mothers, orphans etc, the savings to the exchequer will be huge!
(We can call it something like bridgeJob or similar?)
Nope, call the Unions in and ask them to play ball. Trim the ridiculous staffing levels in admin.
Are there ridiculous number of admin staff?
a) do you know what the admin staff do?
b) what is a sensible number of admin? (or percentage)
c) what risks are there reducing the admin?
The HSE is ridiculously admin heavy, because when they amalgamated all of the regional health boards they never bothered to cut enough admin staff.
The ratio of administrators to consultants in the HSE is 6.2 : 1. In the NHS its 3.1 : 1. Most analysis suggests the HSE has about twice as many admin staff as it requires.
They could fire all a huge chunk of admin staff and use the money to pay nurses a fair wage, and still have money left over to be shoveled into the Simon Harris Children’s Money Fire.
Can you back this up? I’m looking at the NHS annual report and they have
– NHS infrastructure staff 15%
– ‘other staff’ 4.4%
and the HSE (annual report 2017) has
– Management (Grade VIII and above) 1.5%
– Clerical and administrative (Grades III to VII) 14.5%
which seems like the same ballpark (granted these are vague job descriptions).
*I’ve noticed you are comparing admin to ‘consultants’ – perhaps there are too few consultants in Ireland?
http://www.hiberniaforum.ie/public-vs-private-great-health-service-hypocrisy/
That mentions the data. I don’t have anything else public to hand, and given its 6pm on a Friday amn’t about to start Googling I’m afraid. If you’re genuinely curious you can Google it yourself though, there are absolutely loads of of reports out there.
The admin:consultants ratio is just one short hand thats used. The ratio of admin staff to nurses/doctors is also wildly out of whack by European healthcare standards across the board.
The god awful structural problems are a huge part of why the HSE is such a money hole. We need to completely reform it, root and branch, to actually see a return on investment. Throwing money at it as every government 2000-2007 and 2014-now has done, without implementing reform, only provides very short term respite. But its much more politically palatable, sadly.
Very informative. Thanks Zaccone.
Zach is absolutely spot on here Cian
And I don’t know why you’re charging hours into this argument
Shur’ the eff up
Not getting the Health Boards and their staffs over to HSE agreements as it rolled out was all Mickie Martin’s doing
Same with the blank cheque book down they’ve gotten used ta’ down there in James’
That was all Mary Harney’s doing from the start
It is a strange metric: admin to consultant.
In Ireland we have an unusually large nurse per 1000 population. And an unusually small doctor per 1000 population. So I’m a bit sceptical of an article that uses this metric as well as being extraordinary pro-privatisation.
@Cian
my suggestion is a re-write of the constitution and a complete change in the political system of government we have in this country.
everyone and their dog knows full well that the reason this elephant landed the way it has is because good old Fintan Stack MD wouldn’t countenance giving Varadker the shiny nice project in his constituency at the time
politics. there’s one of your root causes right there.
it would be nearly easier to build a space shuttle launchpad than to develop that site alone (nevermind the actual fitout)
cut losses, admit fuppup &:
1) retask the existing siteworks to an extension of the existing hospital
2) commence a greenfield off the M50 whether its Varadkers manor or not
get your moneysworth & everyone happy
If Harris goes, Murphy will be next.
If Harris and Murphy both go, Varadkar will be under a lot of pressure.
Simon will take a fall over the weekend
“Ms McDonald wrote that Simon Harris’s position is untenable in a letter seen by RTÉ News.”
“a letter seen by RTE”?
Did the Bernstein and Woodwards at RTE go to the SF website and click on the link to the letter which was published when Mary Lou issued her press statement this morning? The letter is worth a read for its chutzpah.
http://www.sinnfein.ie/files/2019/ML_Letter_to_MM_08.02_.19_.pdf