Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Waiting lists in Irish Hospitals are growing despite the plan to cut them

 

Our Government promised no one would wait 12 months to see a consultant but what have? Yes 46,000 are now languishing a year or more on waiting list.

One in every eight patients on a hospital waiting list is in the queue for over a year, with some people enduring delays of up to four years to see a consultant.

Today an investigation reveals which hospitals have the worst record for assessing patients in a reasonable time frame.

Despite Government commitments that nobody would be on a waiting list for more than 12 months, nearly 50,000 patients are waiting more than a year.

There are substantial differences in queues at hospitals across the country, meaning that seeing a specialist can be akin to a lottery depending on where you live.

The results show waiting lists are continuing to grow at a spectacular rate at some hospitals, leaving Government and health service commitments to reduce them in tatters.

A massive 46,642 patients are waiting more than a year for an appointment, including 2,891 sick children. This equates to one in eight of the 371,829 patients in the public system.

Overall there has been a 400% increase in the numbers on outpatient lists since January.

Bantry in Cork is the only hospital in Ireland where every patient is assessed by a consultant within a year.

In two of the worst-hit hospitals – Tallaght in Dublin and Waterford Regional – one in four is now waiting for more than a year to be seen, according to an analysis.

Dublin’s Tallaght Hospital has the biggest list of patients waiting over a year in the country, climbing to 6,941 at the end of September.

Waterford Regional Hospital has 6,342 waiting over a year, while the Galway hospital group has 4,541.

The worsening delays have left 561 people who were referred for specialist assessment by the GPs enduring delays of three to four years. Eighteen are waiting even longer.

Of those waiting for three to four years, 356 are in the South Infirmary Hospital in Cork and 51 in Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

In the UK, the target time to see a specialist is 18 weeks.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Leo Varadkar said new approaches were a “priority for hospital groups throughout next year”.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) was told last January that nobody should be on a outpatient waiting list for more than 12 months by the second half of 2014.

Former Health Minister James Reilly wrote to HSE chief Tony O’Brien in January, saying: “I would like outpatient waiting lists to meet the one-year target in the first half of this year and maintain this level throughout the second half of the year.”

And he said the longest delays should be cut down to nine months in the first six months of next year.

Some smaller hospitals – such as Bantry in West Cork – may still aspire to this, but for the vast majority that target is now way beyond their grasp.

A spokesman for Tallaght Hospital blamed the growing queues in its outpatient department on a 22% increase in referrals.

The spokesman said that the hospital was working with the HSE “to address demand and capacity issues”.

Similarly the HSE said the rise was due to hospitals being swamped by increasing numbers of referrals by GPs.

This comes at a time when hospitals have more than 200 vacancies for consultants, several of which have been advertised on a number of occasions.

Dr Tony O’Connell, head of acute hospitals in the HSE, said the vacancy figures were “worrying”.

Waterford Hospital has 23 consultant vacancies, the Mater has 14, the Louth-Meath group of hospitals has 21 and the West/North West Hospitals Group has 30, he said.

Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients’ Association said he knew of one patients who was waiting two years to see a neurosurgeon and faced another five-month delay to get an MRI. “He now needs more surgery and is facing a 12-month wait,” Mr McMahon said.

A spokesman for Health Minister Leo Varadkar said next year hospitals would work more together in their new groups to improve services rather than as stand-alone units.

“Efforts are also being made to reduce the number of patients not turning up for appointments, and increasing the number of new patients in outpatient clinics,” he added.

While the numbers waiting for an outpatient appointment this year had risen dramatically “progress has been made”.

By streamlining the referral process and increasing capacity for new outpatient appointments it had led to an increase of 3% or 64,289 in out-patient attendances between January and August 2014 compared with 2013.

The total number of attendances at outpatient departments this year has been 2.14 million. Plans are also in place to tackle separate in-patient and day-case waiting lists, which are also on the rise.

There has been no “safety valve” funding this year, unlike 2013 when outpatient waiting lists were reduced at the end of the year through paying for public patients to be seen by consultants in private hospitals.

Orthopaedics is one area suffering badly from growing lists. The HSE said that clinics had seen a 10pc rise in referrals.

“We have been able to increase activity despite the budgetary restraints that apply. However, we have only been able to increase it by 8%.”

Irish Revenue Sheriffs called 500 times to collect unpaid property tax

  

REVENUE SHERIFFS HAVE BEEN CALLED IN 500 TIMES THIS YEAR TO HELP COLLECT UNPAID PROPERTY TAX, IT HAS EMERGED.

Revenue is advising homeowners that tomorrow is the deadline to register for the phased payment of the Local Property Tax.

Anyone who paid their LPT for 2014 in one lump sum or made regular payments by cash will also need to confirm their payment method for 2015.

COMPLIANCE RATES FOR THE TAX ARE NOW AT 94%.

Revenue spokesperson Vivienne Dempsey says anyone who is still refusing to pay will face additional costs.

“We have referred over 500 cases at this stage, up to October, to the Sheriff,” she said.

“And invariably, once we’ve referred the case to the Sheriff, we find that the property owners are contacting Revenue at that stage, and are engaging with us to either pay in full, or enter into an agreement, but the difficulty there is that they have also incurred Sheriff’s costs, so really we’re encouraging all property owners to engage with us in advance of being referred to the Sheriff.”

Government pledges high-speed broadband for all of Ireland by end of decade

 

ISSUE OF RURAL INTERNET ACCESS LIKENED TO ‘DRAINING THE SHANNON’ AS SUCCESSIVE PLEDGES FAIL

Every home and business in the country will have high-speed broadband by the end of the decade, the Government has promised.

Every home and business in the country will have high-speed broadband by the end of the decade, the Government has promised.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has said 600,000 homes and 100,000 businesses, which do not currently have broadband, will have it by the end of the decade.

It has published online national and county maps that identify the homes, businesses and schools where commercial providers will deliver high-speed broadband access by the end of 2016.

The Government will then step in to provide broadband services for the rest of the country.

The maps, which allow the public to identify their own premises to see whether their high-speed broadband will be provided by a commercial operator or through State intervention, can be accessed at broadband.gov.ie.

The website also carries county-by-county statistics on planned broadband coverage.

Launching the maps and an accompanying consultation document in Doolin, Co Clare, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources said his department plans to issue a public tender for the state intervention by the end of 2015.

Minister White said: “The delivery of high quality broadband is about ensuring that our citizens in rural Ireland have the same life chances, and the same access to information, culture, ideas, social interaction and opportunity that people in urban areas can enjoy. It’s also about jobs in the rural economy.”

The quality or lack of it of broadband in rural areas has been a huge area of discontent in the last five years.

Businesses have complained that they are in a serious commercial disadvantage without high-speed broadband.

Séamus Folan of the Irish Rural Link said repeated Government plans for rural broadband had been the modern equivalent of “draining the Shannon” and there had been five previous announcements by ministers.

“It is a commitment that these people will not get broadband unless the State intervenes,” he said, “but cost is an issue.”

Will I qualify for the new broadband scheme and how much will it cost?

  

A RURAL BROADBAND ROLL-OUT FOR IRELAND

A beginner’s guide to what the National Broadband Plan is, when it will happen, who will be covered and how much it will cost.

What is the National Broadband Plan?

It’s a plan to cover every rural home and business in the country with high speed broadband of at least 30 megabits per second (30Mbs), partially paid for by the taxpayer. Today, the government published a map (on broadband.gov.ie) showing in detail every townland, village and rural area where the new state-subsidised broadband will apply.

When are the first rural homes and businesses set to be connected?

The government plans for the first homes and businesses to get the service in late 2016. It says that the entire network should be completed by the end of 2020.

How much will it cost rural householders and business owners?

The same as city-based services. In other words, a 30Mbs service should not cost more than €40 per month (at today’s prices), regardless of where you live.

Will it apply to every rural premises and, if so, how many does that entail?

The government is adamant that every last home and business in the country will be covered, whether on top of a mountain or on the remotest island. It says that this amounts to 600,000 homes and 100,000 businesses that cannot receive current high speed services from existing operators. It says that of 50,000 townlands in the country, 47,000 will qualify in whole or in part for subsidised broadband. It also says that this amounts to 100,000km of road network.

Is the new service to be a minimum of 30 Mbs or ‘up to’ 30 Mbs?

It will categorically be a minimum speed of 30Mbs and not merely ‘up to’ 30Mbs,” said Minister White. “This chimes with the targets being set by the EU of 30Mbs for all European citizens.” This is a change in policy. Last year, the previous Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte, said that it would be ‘up to’ 30Mbs. The upgraded speeds may be designed to help it pass European state-aid tests: the higher the minimum speed specified, the easier it is for the government to say that government intervention is necessary because private operators won’t provide similar services.

How will the government get a minimum of 30Mbs to every last home in the country?

The government is prioritising fibre to be connected into each house or business. However, it is anticipating other methods of broadband delivery in cases of hard-to-reach locations, such as phone lines or fixed wireless solutions. For this, it has specified “community points” such as Garda stations and schools: it may be that fibre runs to such a point and is then switched to a phone line or a wireless signal to reach the house or business.

Is the government’s new broadband map final?

No. The government is encouraging people to examine the map in detail (it zooms down to every household and business) and check to see that it accurately reflects broadband availability. The map is available at broadband.gov.ie.

How much will the government spend and where is the money coming from?

The government’s standing estimate is that it is ready to contribute between €355m and €512m of the total cost of rolling out the national broadband network, with private operators providing matching amounts. However, Minister White says that it could cost more (or less) than that, depending on the tender results. The government hopes to tap into EU funding to help pay for it, possibly including the European Investment Bank. However, it says that it will commit taxpayers’ money to it as necessary.

Over the last three years, the cost of building that has come down significantly, with industry sources estimating that almost every house in the country could be covered for around €1bn.

Why can’t it be done sooner than the end of 2016?

The government says that to pass EU state-aid rules, it now needs to consult with industry (Irish broadband providers) on the issue before formally submitting its plan for EU approval next summer. If it clears that hurdle, it will then tender out for operators to help build and run the networks. Minister White says that the tender process should happen “this time next year” and that construction of the network (or networks) will begin in 2016.

Is there anything that could hold it up further?

There are three main potential barriers. The first is that the EU may draw out or prevent it happening based on state-aid rules. A second hurdle is that the government may lose interest: despite all the promises and plans, there is no budgetary commitment yet to this process and the earliest expected roll-out date will almost certainly come after the election of a new government.

One obstacle that is likely to crop up is a legal challenge. This could come either from a losing tender bidder or existing rural broadband providers, who might argue that the state-funded infrastructure is set to put them out of business. For example, there are at least 50 wireless internet service providers around rural towns and villages that could be wiped out if fibre is rolled out to every rural home.

Who will own the newly built rural network or networks?

We don’t know. The government is leaving the door open to handing over the rural networks to private operators as it doesn’t particularly want to start running a new utility. The issue will be outlined in the government’s tender next year. While the government does not want to give away taxpayer-funded infrastructure on the cheap, it also does not want to scare off potential bidders by denying any long term financial incentives for them.

Who is likely to bid to run the new networks?

Eircom and UPC, which dominate Ireland’s existing broadband infrastructure, are interested in the process and are likely to pitch for whatever tender comes up. Vodafone and the ESB, which are currently building a smaller fibre network, are also interested in the process.

Will the new network or networks be regulated by Comreg?

Probably, but neither the government nor Comreg is yet saying what role Comreg will have.

Is this the only rural broadband scheme currently underway?

Technically, yes. The ESB and Vodafone have announced plans to connect ‘up to’ 500,000 homes and businesses around the country with a new fibre broadband network, but this will only be towns of at least 4,000 people. So it will largely just replicate what Eircom already has on its own road map and won’t reach the 700,000 rural premises targeted by the National Broadband Plan.

Where does this leave the previous National Broadband Scheme?

That scheme — which ran from 2008 until August of this year — is now over. It used cellular mobile broadband (from 3 Ireland) as its main service with promises of delivering between 2Mbs and 3Mbs. It’s interesting that the government has now saying that it will not 4G mobile broadband as part of a National Broadband Plan. This would appear to restrict extremely remote locations to fixed wireless or phone line connections.

How did the Department of Communications put the map together?

It sought detailed information from broadband operators about their own existing coverage maps and their planned coverage maps up to the end of 2016. (In effect, this means Eircom and UPC.) It then worked back from that to identify individual estates, townlands and one-off houses not covered by broadband services of at least 30Mbs. “Where an operator said that it provides 20Mbs or 25Mbs, we counted that as an area that is not covered,” said one department official. The government says it has had 100 meetings with industry operators between April and mid-November.

WHY IS ALL OF THIS NECESSARY?

Commercial operators such as Eircom and UPC say that they simply cannot make money from offering high speed broadband to remote townlands and rural ribbon developments, which have 26 people per square kilometre living there according to the government. So the only way for the 700,000 homes and businesses in those areas to get high speed broadband is by state intervention.

“The government is clear that this requires a robust state intervention to deliver to the parts of the country that the commercial sector won’t be in a position to do,” said Minister White.

Environmental good deeds give people a ‘very warm glow’

 

People actually feel warmer when they think about helping the planet, researchers find

Peope who think they are helping the environment actually feel warmer, a study has found.

Doing an environmentally good deed gives you a warm feeling – quite literally.

Psychologists found that when volunteers thought they were helping the environment their perception of temperature changed.

It was as if they were enveloped in a ”warm glow”, said the scientists.

People classed as environmentally ”friendly” estimated the temperature around them to be around 1C higher than those led to believe their behaviour was environmentally ”unfriendly”.

The report authors, led by Danny Taufik, from the University of Griningen in the Netherlands, wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change: ”Acting environmentally friendly boosts a person’s self-concept, which is reflected in a literal warm glow.

”We also explored whether physical warmth (skin temperature) is affected by acting environmentally friendly, but we found no consistent evidence for this.”

Students taking part in the study completed a questionnaire about their carbon footprint, and were told that lower scores indicated environmentally friendly behaviour.

They were then given a fake carbon footprint score for the ”average” student, against which their own scores were compared.

Participants were also asked to guess the temperature of the room in which they were sitting.

Those whose carbon footprints appeared to be more environmentally friendly than average rated the room significantly warmer than students whose scores were less friendly.

The researchers concluded that helping the environment was intrinsically rewarding, which was something that should be recognised by ”green” campaigns.

For instance, informing people they could help protect the environment by unplugging unused electronic devices may be a better strategy than telling them it will save money.

Future research could explore the extent to which acting in an environmentally friendly way might influence warmth-related behaviours such as setting central heating thermostats, said the scientists.

They added that other work had shown a negative psychological state caused by feeling lonely resulted in lower perceived temperatures, and also prompted people to take warmer showers ”presumably to make one feel better”.