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THE HSE HAS defended its STI treatment services after it emerged that gay men are being turned away from a Dublin clinic because it doesn’t have the resources to cope with demand.
Fianna Fáil health spokesperson, Stephen Donnelly, said that gay men were being told that they couldn’t be tested at a clinic on Dublin’s Baggot St.
“I have been contacted by several gay men who were turned away from the Gay Men’s Health Service (GMHS), located on Baggot Street, due to a lack of capacity. This is an ongoing issue, and one which the staff in the clinic are doing their level best to manage,” Donnelly said.
The concerns come following the government’s announcement that a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) HIV prevention programme will be implemented in 2019. In April, HIQA said the introduction of a PrEP programme to reduce HIV rates in Ireland would be cheaper than current care.
According to a HSE spokesperson, the GMHS “is centrally involved in strategies and actions to reduce the incidence of HIV and STIs in the men who have sex with men (MSM) community”.
The service currently has the capacity to see approximately 1,000 clients per month.
“Any client who presents at a clinic but cannot be seen is made aware of alternative clinic times and also other services available,” the spokesperson added.
According to the HSE, demand for GMHS is increasing every year.
“In 2018, approximately 1,030 clients presented to the GMHS each month,” the spokesperson said.
“This year, the average number of clients presenting each month has risen to 1,138. All efforts are made by staff to optimise current resources”.
This year, the GMHS received an additional €421,875 for the continuation of the PrEP monitoring clinic, the asymptomatic STI clinic, a peer outreach programme and a vaccination nursing post, the spokesperson said.
‘There’s just not enough capacity’
In PrEP treatment, patients pre-emptively take a fixed dose of oral medication. As part of a PrEP programme, service-users are monitored for side effects, tested for HIV and other STIs, and given counselling and advice on safer sex practices.
“No one disputes the power of PrEP but unless there is adequate STI screening services for the LGBT community, PrEP will not be as powerful as it should be,” Fianna Fáil’s Donnelly has said.
“Put simply demand for the service is outstripping the existing capacity of the clinic. Over the last three years, the number of people presenting to the clinic for STI screening has nearly doubled from less than 6,000 to more than 11,000,” he added.
“This is incredibly positive but what about the people who are being turned away?” he added.
HIV diagnoses reached a record high in 2018, with 531 cases recorded last year according to the latest HSE figures.
One 34-year-old man, who did not wish to be named and had been attending GMHS since 2012, told The Irish Times that things had gotten worse in recent years.
“Twice since January I’ve arrived a bit earlier and was told there was only capacity for 25 or 30 appointments and that it was at the end of it,” he said. “There’s just not enough capacity. The staff are great and they work really hard, but they’re at a point now where I just don’t think they can do anymore.”
In a statement, the Department of Health did not directly address the concerns raised about GMHS. However, it said that the government was working to reduce the number of people who contract HIV.
“We are bringing in a PrEP programme and are increasing testing in the community. We are investing €450,000 to further expand community HIV testing and raise awareness about the benefits of treatment”, a spokesperson for the department said.
“We will continue to assess resourcing for sexual health services and examine this as part of service planning for 2020,” the spokesperson added.
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Video conferencing. Problem solved. Savings immense.
Although government jets and helicopters have been misused previous to open off-licenses and supermarkets, our government does need at least one dedicated private jet. If another economic calamity were to occur it would be hard to influence an EU discussion over skype. We do live on an island.
More use of charters and scheduled flights for 99% of travel would make more sense economically. NetJets can have a jet ready in 10 hours to travel anywhere in the world.
@Charles ….like in the nirvana of quality broadband then, do you ?…’cos the rest of the country doesn’t.
I already carry scans, on a CD, from one HSE place to another on the Blood Bike, on a regular basis. Irish connectivity is not up to the task, period.
I don’t think the govt can be trusted not to misuse the plane. There’s been to meny instances where it’s been abused. As in the situation where someone who for example has defrauded the state out of monies is fined or jailed the same should naturally apply to the govt ministers, I’m sure that would focus they’re minds.the cost to the taxpayer is paramount when it comes to reining in fraud. Until there is equality across all sections of society as regards theft and not the standard as at present where it’s deemed ok to “borrow” a plane nothing will change. How many children have had to forgo the opportunity to get medical help for life threatening illnesses because the jet was being used for personal use. Its inexcusable.
I have personally seen this jet used to get sick children to the UK in a hurry a number of times. I would keep the smaller jet for this purpose alone.
As for the politicians, I’m sure Mr. O’Leary would only be too happy to offer them discounted travel, sure any of them that travel with commercial airlines currently still let us foot the bloody bill
Chopper is best for emergency UK runs. No need for govt jet. Population 5m and nation all but broke.
The air corp serve no real purpose in Ireland and are a huge expense to the taxpayer considering they don’t even carry out search and rescue or much else of benefit the tax payer, apart from the odd photograph or fly past.
Scrap the jet,disband the government flying club and build houses on the land at baldonnel.
Nama should have a few
at a discount!
Wild Rover!
Really! The Air Corps serve no purpose! You clearly haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. For the love of God, Google Irish Air Corps, take 5 mins on their FB page, have a look at military.ie, go and educate yourself before making pointless, ill informed comments!
Please???!!!
I hear the Minister for Transport has already released a statement saying he won’t be getting involved.
Typical. You become a Minister and have to make decisions yet are allowed to delegate that accountability to a civil servant.
Fly economy. Ryanair will love this
Are they not all on holidays these past 2 months ?
My be they could fly on malayasian airlines
No they are not on holiday. The Dail is in recess.
Great ad for ryanair
This aircraft is not only used for flying ministers around. It is often used as an air ambulance, for example.
Also, it is the only aircraft in the Air Corp fleet with inter-continental range. If a member of the Defence Forces were to require a medical evacuation from, say, Syria today then the State would be unable to provide it.
I can (to an extant) understand the “let Enda fly coach” argument but it is a reaction to a very incomplete story.
Insure them and let an air ambulance evacuate. It’s cheaper
Fluck em, if they are stuck in airports they are not meeting to discuss new ways to tax and squander.
Buy a decent air ambulance, the junkets can economy their arses
the gombeen on the news this morning was saying that “we have to sell the country” but we all laugh at every tin pot African dictator with his fleet of mercs and private jets. Governments of bankrupt countries don’t deserve these perks. They should have to slum it on Ryanair and maybe pick up a few stories of Irish emigrants they happen to sit beside, might be an eye opener
Sure they won’t be sitting beside any Irish emigrants. Didn’t you know that the Irish emigrating leave the country by hiding out in freight ships bound for the UK?
We are told we have no money ,we don’t need these aircraft .all Aerlingus transatlantic aircraft have wifi on board .Airport lounges have wifi so they can work away .use this service all the time work gets done .
Get the Healy Rea’s to fix it. They seem to be invoicing local government for everything else – they seem to own every other business in Kerry.
We have to make a decision on this and some questions need to be asked!
Does the country require Ministerial Air Transport?
If yes, how many aircraft? 1, 2 or more?
What is the most cost effective way of supplying this? Buy or Use a service like Netjets!
I’m inclined to think that we should have our own service as frequently these are required at short notice but we need to put money aside for maintenance and money aside for replacements.
Is your comment a joke?! I am rolling around in floods of tears from laughing at the utter stupidy that you just typed!!!!
*stupidity
Yes, knee jerk reactions are much better than trying to ask the right questions. Well done.
Yes we should never ask questions in the taking of decisions Nicola. And we should never consider the business case for any public spending. And we should never calculate anything. That said I think one of the reasons the last (ever, hopefully) FF led Government lost touch and allowed idiotic decisions about air transport in this country to be made was that the Drumcondra Dunce had not flown commercial in years. A walk through the hell that is Dublin airport might have helped him realise where the country was going.
You’re rolling around in floods of tears laughing?
What a jolly person you must be. Well done you.
@Nicola McClean ditto!
Well put Proinsias. We are an island nation entirely dependent on trade. We are one of the most open economies in the world. Our Ministers fly commercial a great deal of the time just like the rest of us. Unfortunately commercial aircraft do not always travel at the times and at the frequency needed for cabinet Ministers. However like anything else it is open to abuse. I do not think people realise just how much travel is involved for Ministers for business reasons. Most of this travel can be accommodated on commercial flights but there are always exceptions. Ireland should, in my view, have a least one aircraft under the stewardship of our air force which is capable of inter-continental travel but its use should be carefully monitored and it should be available for multiple purposes. I saw this article in the Irish Independent as well. Of course it was couched in terms designed to madden the masses i.e. last perk etc.. If properly used it is not a perk but a business necessity for an island nation doing business in an inter-connected world.
Get out and push? Hopefully at 30000 feet.
Tell them to get the boat!
Flying cargo would be fair too good for any Minister,TD, the Tainiste or the Taoiseach….
If you’re going to make a ridiculous comment try not to make yourself ridiculous too by making so many spelling mistakes.
Let’s not forget the jets are also used to transport sick children to UK for various treatments, etc.
Ah, I have your attention now, haven’t i?
All you have to do to change people’s minds is to mention sick children.
“Think of the children! What about the children?”
Yes,I 100% agree that we should think of the children and transplant paitents so what’s the soloution…
Get rid of the ministerial transport and let them travel with the mere minions that pay their wages .
Invest the money in fully equipped air ambulances .
You had me at “Let’s”.
You complete me.
Hospitals in the UK don’t have airstrips. This is the worst justification of a pointless perk I have ever read.
Do you know the cost difference in running a plane and a helicopter…
Right just to clear up a couple of things… Bertie did fly coach a number of times and I remember him being given out because he didn’t take the Government Jet back from South Africa once… I think there was a rumour at the time he didn’t like them especially the older one, which he thought unsafe.
Saying that we used to have just one Government Jet until about ten years back when we bought the new one, we just never got rid of the old one…(The question of needing two is valid)
As an Island country having a Government Jet is kind of important, we are kind of lucky having good diplomatic standing in the world and are respected arbitrators in world events… This helps us in trade and thus employment.
They can use Ryanair like the rest of us and put the money saved towards a good air ambulance and search and rescue helicopters.
They need to upgrade to a new G5! There’s no way our ministers should be slumming it in old G4….
Ryanair like the rest of us!
About time t h et got they’re wings clipped
Let them catch the bus.
Fly Ryanair ! No reason why ministers cannot take a commercial flights.
have your say