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FIANNA FÁIL LEADER Micheál Martin has hit out at the Health Minister Leo Varadkar over the crisis in hospital Emergency Departments.
Martin said that the minister “needs to stop being a commentator and some sort of detached analyst” in the wake of the number of people on hospital trolleys hitting over 600 on a single day this week.
“I think it’s an appalling situation,” Martin, a former health minister, told reporters at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin today.
“I think the government were given notice in the autumn that this crisis was going to happen. The Minister himself has now acknowledged that he knew before Christmas that this was going to happen and that the measures that he took were not adequate.”
Martin said that Varadkar “needs to move with a far greater degree of urgency” and suggested that cuts to the Fair Deal nursing home scheme were a factor in the current crisis as elderly people were not being moved out of emergency care as quickly as they should be.
“It should have been prevented, it could have been prevented if the government had move quickly enough last year to prevent the crisis coming at this particular time,” Martin continued.
He added that it was “not good enough” for Varadkar to say the crisis is likely to get worse in the coming weeks as is traditionally the case at this time of year.
Martin added: “He has a responsibility to roll up his sleeves and get involved here and make sure the measures he takes will have an impact unlike the measures he took before Christmas.
Defending Varadkar today, his predecessor James Reilly said that the current incumbent has “a very difficult job to do”.
“This is always a difficult time of the year and I would be fully supportive of his efforts to address the needs of people who find themselves in need of medical attention over the coming months,” the Children’s Minister said at the same event.
Reilly said that as he is no longer the minister he could not answer questions as to why the crisis has gotten even worse than it was under his tenure when he promised that the number of patients on trolleys would never hit 569 on a single day ever again.
He said that it was “a very complex area” but one “that Minister Varadkar, I have no doubt, will put his full attention into resolving”.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams blamed the current crisis on the government’s austerity measures, saying: “If you cut nurses by 2,724 and nursing home beds and long term care placements by 2000 then you are going to have a crisis.
“If you destroy homecare packages, the community support and public nursing homes then you should not be surprised to be in this shameful situation.”
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Mícheál Martin should give some examples of the work he did to alleviate A&E overcrowding while he was minister for health.
I am now going to set Sinn Fein and the Independents a task – a task that will prove whether they are capable of forming a Government or not …
Combine and take over Micheal Martin’s role as leader of the opposition – If you cannot manage that then you are not fit for office ..
You have the numbers – now prove it !
Ryan – go back to your Home for the Bewildered….
Clown
Martin was minister for health when all he had to do was hire more and more staff without dealing with the problems.
Thought SF didn’t recognize borders
He introduced the smoking ban, one of the most important pieces of public health legislation in the history of the state. Instead of vilifying the elderly as ‘bed blockers’ this government needs to introduce equally radical policy in regard to obesity which is surely having a huge impact on numbers in hospital.
The WHO is predicting the Irish to be the fattest nation in Europe if we keep ignoring this epidemic.
That fella needs to come out… I’ve heard stories leo ;-)
He’s willing to comment on everything except his sexual preference to men. Come on leo… its time… :-)
“Home for the bewildered ” – I think I gave you that term Will – can you not come up with something original ?
Go on ya good thing !
The lad behind Varadkar is head of the Ambulance service – Did ye all see Primetime Investigates into the ambulance service – One emergency response vehicle was parked outside a house in Derry for the Christmas holidays of 2013/14 …..
And yer man in his parting comment at the end of the programme let us know that our Ambulance Service had the “best uniforms” in the world.
What has you’re comment to do with article.
leo the lip is just that ,no mystique a populist mouth piece
Spent last night in A&E with my asthma. There were no seat’s available in the waiting room people were sitting on the floor, there were no trolleys, even the minor treatment area was full. I was lucky I took my own medication up there because for 4 hours I was forgotten about, I was told to go home and keep on my nebs because they have no beds available. By the looks of things I will be back there tonight. Leo will go down in history of another useless health minister just like Mary harny? And lard arse Brian.
And what a great Minister of Health Mr. Martin was !!!
I don’t have any time for FF but he wasn’t a bad health minister, I’ll give him credit where it is due because of the smoking ban that he brought in.
He set up the HSE as the frankenstein bolted-together monster of all the health boards with all their baggage.
That clustervuck of lazy political appeasement with no organisational design or efficiencies is what has us where we are today.
Martin should apologise
Tim in order to understand what a bad Minister for Health Micheal Martin was you have to first understand addiction …
Before the smoking ban came in I smoked one packet of cigarettes every day . A week after the smoking ban I smoked a packet of cigarettes every day …
The difference was that before the smoking ban it was a box of ten and after the ban it was a box of twenty …
Do you think that the tobacco companies knew this ?
Quick poll – green thumb if you had a similar experience or know someone who had ……
The art of politics is often selling increased corporate profits as a benefit to society when the corporation have a hidden agenda – not saying this happened with Martin and the Tobacco lobby but there was no justification for getting rid of the box of ten – the bullcrap argument at the time was that young lads would buy a box of ten and thus start smoking – and at the time there was near full employment and teenagers had part-time jobs affordability was never an issue with teenagers at the time !
I think that Micheal Martin will loose his seat in Cork – Louise O’Keefe is from Cork and Central Government treated her oh so badly !
He made a mess of setting up the HSE, however the principle remains, central decision making without political interference,
But can our senior managers manage, can they make decisions for the good of the services without having to be told
Meehole Martin, of course, the man behind the HSE, the Irish Water style clusterf**k of his own time in government.
All the same, nice piece of commentary by Martin. Calling on Varadker to stop commentating.
Coming from FF who managed to throw untold billions at the HSE up to 08 yet never reformed how they provide services on the ground. Do they still have those staff with no positions who just sit at unplugged computers everyday. FF the friend of lobbies and quangos.
Mícheál Martin has some cheek to comment on this, seeing as he was the genius that brought us the HSE!
No excuses – sort it out , if you knew this was coming then why head off on a foreign holiday Varadkar. Less about water protesters and more effort on your own patch is in order !
In all fairness when Reilly promised that the number of patients on trolleys would never hit 569 on a single day ever again under Fine Gael he was correct. It’s 601 now. He never said the number would be lower, just different.
A bunch of conmen the lot of them people sick injured and dying on trolleys and their out looking for votes in the news if they stop all the they did we did something might get done
Michael Martin needs to go to a doctor and get his amnesia sorted.
Of course, Jarry Adams is an expert on hospitals….
In New York
Its great to see his Government in NI doing something about the emergency departments in Belfast and operations being cancelled….great to see double standards are alive and well….
Is Gerry Adams First Minister of Northern Ireland – well fair play to him – I must get of this yoke I completely missed that happening !
Then again considering the money thing with Peter Robinson’s wife it was bound to happen…
Does that mean that Mary Lou will lead Sinn Fein in the next election – It would bring in a lot of female votes – like the Mary Robinson’s thing !
Mary Robinson got 100% of the votes in one polling booth in Longford – men and women – the lot of them voted for her !
Gerry Adams in the leader of a government party in NI, so yes he is speaking from both sides of his mouth.
Almost every party is a ‘Government Party’ in the power-sharing executive in NI – the opposition consists of six people out of 108 seats. Not quite the same thing as being a government party in the Republic.
Give it up Leo…
Varadkar’s the Master of the hit n run comment. Needs to focus on his job, and stop telling everyone what to do, and how to do it! Leadership material he ain’t !
True that, he was on the radio last week commenting on the Scottish ebola case!!!
Michael martin can’t talk. But all the comments blaming everyone else is at this stage is ridiculous. Is FG,LABOUR the current government. YES. Have then been in government number of years.YES. Did they downgrade or close ED around the country .YES. Did they cut community care and services. YES. They are responsible. Because they are the government . They didn’t tackle the mismanagement at the hse. As for Leo he had his taskforce meet on the 22nd Dec . What use was this . Doesn’t he know when Christmas starts and people on holidays . He is shambles and not fit for the job. Blaming everyone and everything now is starting to really show how pathetic this government is .
The amount of time it takes to get someone moved from the hospital in my own mother’s experience was six months to the day.
Martin was part of the problem that led to this state of affairs,however,he is correct about Varadkar,as Minister for Health he should have clearly outlined his strategy and timeframes for resolving the issue of overcrowding,instead of talking about everything and anything but his portfolio. As his predecessor said above,this is always a particularly bad time of year,so it was no surprise,so what did Leo do to prepare for it? Slag water protestors and talk about chicken wings.
Sure they’re all the minister for the environment now, all focused on railroading IW. Leo needs to quit being bothered about €3 a week and start doing what he’s paid to do. Nothing but massive amounts of cash will solve the issue in the hospitals, couldn’t care less what time of the year it is, what a lame and insulting excuse. Just shut up and fix it. Take the money from the bondholders payments and tell THEM it’s needed to plug holes.
Its a good point about Leo waffling on about things that don’t concern him. If he’s such an expert at everything why is the dept for which he’s responsible such a disaster then. Even his approach to being a spokesperson for it sucks. He can’t even be here when he’s needed. Even in my lowly position in life I was available on Xmas eve and New year’s. Not for him though, a holiday in Florida no less.
This is tricky.
Should I agree with Martin, who knows enough from his failure as a Minister for Health and should not longer be leader of Fianna Fáil, or should I support Vad, who should neither be Minister for Health nor the Leader of Fine Gael?
Question is, could the hospitals run themselves if they were funded without the HSE?
How thick is this Government. 3 most important things in everybody life (1) Health without it your nothing. Your health is wealth. (2) Education is the second thing everybody needs for now and the future. (3) Law with out law there be no peace and justice. Why don’t the government pump money into the three of them and stop trying to just get there picture on tv or the papers. Even after the budget all the TD’s wanted to do was get on tv. What a sad bunch of people that was voted in to government.
In the 1960′s – when our population was a little smaller than it is now – there were over 3,000 more acute hospital beds available in the country. Added to this, there were numerous Convalescent homes and what were known as “cottage hospitals” – nearly all have now vanished on the altar of cost cutting. The old saying still holds “You can’t cram a quart into a pint pot”.
now remind me again micheal who set up the HSE
Look at the head on the clown behind him who stated on prime time last year we have the best ambulance service in the world, can’t believe he’s still in a job
Leo needs to do his job, we have a very poor return from our politicians for very large salaries, if he worked for a large corporation his ass would be in a sling
They are all full of shit!
‘I must get of this yoke’….
PLEASE
I will if you will willy
One caveat however – if I do , then I am going to get involved in irish Politics with the sole intention of destroying the Golden Circle –
Check with Party headquarters before we set each other a challenge –
I love a challenge !
-Enough money goes into the health services black hole.
-Whats needed is effective management.
-Great headline Leo needs to stop being a commentator.
-he seems great at swanning around talking about issues, getting himself on tv and into the headlines.
-often on issues he has n responsibility for . This issue is very clearly his responsibility
-Find a solution. Implement it. Action not talk at this stage.
Lack of realism in decisions made by the EMC and control of policy and purse strings outside the Cabinet is part of the reason Ministers may feel powerless. Going on holiday was a bad call. Buck stops with the Taoiseach and Enda has his sights on other than the implications of his Budgets. Leo needs to focus on his own portfolio.
O f course Mehowl is right…yes Leo has a lot to say about everything except his core responsibilites… Mehowl should know been a former Minister for Health and what a success that was
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