Author Archives: Bodger

A total of 534 patients were discharged from hospitals and moved to nursing home facilities between March 1 and May 6

Yesterday.

It was revealed that more than 500 patients were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic.

Ireland has had the second highest death rate in care settings in the world with 1,030 victims.

Via Irish Mirror:

A total of 534 patients were discharged from hospitals and moved to the facilities between March 1 and May 6.

The HSE figures relate to people transferred under its Nursing Homes Support Scheme or Fair Deal Scheme.

The largest number – 54 people – were discharged from St James’s Hospital in Dublin.

Meanwhile, 45 patients – the second highest tally sent to care settings – came from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth.

It is less than 40km from Dealgan House where 23 residents died between
April 1 and May 7…….

Over 500 patients transferred from hospitals to nursing homes during height of pandemic (Trevor Quinn, Irish Mirror)

Last week; ‘Livestock’

Devastating

Last night/This morning

White House, Washington DC.

At least five US police were shot during violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody, hours after President Donald Trump vowed to use the military to halt the unrest.

Trump deepened outrage on Monday by posing at a church clutching a bible after law enforcement officers used teargas and rubber bullets to clear the way for him to walk there after he made his remarks in the White House Rose Garden

It comes after an official post-mortem has found that George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police triggered protests across the US, was killed by “homicide”.

George Floyd protests: At least five US police officers shot (Telegraph)

Meanwhile…

Last night.

Manhattan, New York City, New York.

Top pic: Getty

Secretary General of the irish Hospital Consultants Association Martin Varley speaking at the Covid 19 Committee in the dail

This morning.

In his opening statement to the Dáil Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, Martin Varley, Secretary General of the IHCA, said there has been a “very low” private hospital bed capacity occupancy at around one third on average.

Mr Varley said the private hospital contract is prohibiting the provision of urgent care required by patients with non-Covid illnesses.

He said this is leading to the accumulation on waiting lists of a large number of patients who require urgent care.

Mr Varley warned there is now the additional risk that these patients will deteriorate clinically and will increasingly evolve into emergency cases if they are not treated without delay.

He called for the contract with private hospitals to be brought to an end and the savings achieved utilised to put increased capacity in place for public hospitals.

Private hospital deal ‘poor value for money’ – Irish Hospital Consultants Association (RTÉ)

Earlier…

Top: Larry Goodman (left) and Denis O’Brien

This morning.

From 11am until 1pm in the Dáil.

The Special Committee on Covid-19 Response will discuss the State’s renting of private hospitals. The discussion will continue from 2pm until 4pm.

From 4.30pm until 6.30pm, it will discuss the travel restrictions.

See the committee’s schedule here

Watch live here or in the link above

Previously: €44,000 Paid Per Private Bed In April

Cancel Culture

From top: St Giles Exhall, near Coventry, England; Part of a judgement banning a grave with an Irish language inscription at the church’s cemetery

Ah here.

Historian Dr Francis Young writes:

This is an absolutely extraordinary judgement from a Church of England consistory court, ruling that the Irish language cannot appear on a memorial on account of ‘the passions and feelings connected with the use of Irish Gaelic‘.

If the judgement had been based solely on concerns about comprehensibility for the majority of people in Coventry it might be defensible.

But the judgement not only rules against Irish on the grounds that it could be seen as a political statement, but proceeds on the *assumption* that the use of Irish must be a political statement unless the contrary can be shown (read the full judgement)

I am left open-mouthed at this apparent resurgence of old-fashioned anti-Irish prejudice, not only in a judicial tribunal, but in a judicial tribunal of the church. This is shocking

Full judgment here

Pic via St Giles

‘The Naked City’.

Possibly NSFW.

Eamonn Farrell writes:

While cocooned with Coronavirus I have devised an outdoor exhibition in Dublin, using boarded up premises and advertising billboards as my digital canvas.

I have named this show ‘ The Naked City ‘ as Dublin is now a sad, lonely and empty space. It is of course a ‘virtual exhibition’.

Eamonn Farrell/Rollingnews

From top: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Dublin Gay Pride in 2017; Irish passport

This morning.

Via Independent.ie:

In the report drafted by Fine Gael’s LGBT committee, it is recommended these children should be free to legally self-declare their gender.

The committee, which includes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, also said laws need to be changed to allow all children under 16 to change their gender with parental approval.

It recommends that the next government should allow people who do not consider themselves either male or female to be permitted to mark X on their passports.

This would mean Irish passports would have three gender categories – male, female and X.

The policy paper also calls for changes to the Road Traffic Act to allow for the introduction of rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossings.

Children under 16 will be able to change gender under FG plan (Independent.ie)

Rollingnews