Needless to say the HSE is pretty hated in Ireland. When they come up with a new Health Care system they will definitely need to change the name because people will not be able to trust this executive again. Jan's district in Limerick is one of the regions that gets the least amount of funding for Health Services. I'm reading a book by a doctor in the system that is anonymous and he tells the truth about what goes on in the Irish Health System. The essential themes of the book are: Because of the divide between private and public insurance holders there are not enough beds for public patients and they are treated as second class. It is not the fault of the private insurance holders because they are almost forced to get private insurance if they want to receive proper care. In this system doctors are practicing private services in public hospitals and there is an incentive to do so. Say a radiologist has a stack of 50 public x-rays to analyze and a stack of 10 private x-rays to analyze. It is already included in his paycheck for the month for the public patients, and he will get 50 euro each if he does the private x-rays. What says that he has to get the public patients done first. So you have public patients taking up bed for weeks on end waiting to get this scan or x-ray that is required for them to have surgery, or even be discharged. Thus, meaning that that public patient is unneccessarily holding up a bed and aiding the already heinous bed crisis. It's such a bad system I can't even really imagine it.
Well, I've been sick and I finally got myself to the Doctor this morning and really I had a fine time. It was 55 euro to see the doctor get her to write a prescription and then 10 euro to get it filled. well I'm pretty sure in the US that number would be a lot higher and I would probably be crying about not having insurance. I was watching yesterday in Jan's office the committee she's on for Health and they were having a Hearing about the prescription drug prices and the HSE's plan to lower them is to close 500 Pharmacies ( family owned mind you) across the Country and lose 5,000 jobs and hopefully merely hopefully lower the cost of drugs. I really don't understand how this plan works and neither this Jan and the rest of the Health committee. the HSE spokesperson in the Committee really was not pleasant and the committee ended in a screaming match. The Chair was pretty much screaming at the HSE person too to answer the questions. That's how bad the health system is here.
I'm reading a book called The Bitter Pill by a doctor in the system who works in the hospitals and has gone through the system. It was published last year and he didn't use his real name, it's Doctor X. He is anonymous because of the incredible risk he would have put himself in if he had used his real name. His career would have been over, he would have been blocked from becoming a consultant, taking tests and passing them, or even getting a job in another country as a doctor, that's how currupt and powerful these head consultants are in Ireland. I'm almost done with it, I read about 30 pages of it a day on the train to the city, I'm going to lend it to Jan after I'm done because she hasn't read it yet. P.S. I love Jan, she got her hair done yesterday and she looked super fierce and awesome yesterday in the committee. The other Labour Party person on the Health Committee is cool, but she doesn't speak as fluidly as Jan does, Jan used to be a teacher so she is really good at asking you questions, but making you feel badly if you don't answer them correctly or give her the right answers, she has the great guilt factor I've ever seen in my life. She's so grand.
Any way we went to Galway this week, i developed a terrible cough and i'm pretty sure I kept the entire hostel up with it. We didn't even go out at Night because I felt like I should lay low. We met a friend of friend of Sarah's who is still living in Galway Friday night and he took us to see some music. In dublin you can't find a traditional music session anywhere and I mean anywhere. So we went to the Crane Pub and went upstairs at about 9:30 and There were Two Men and a Lady tuning their instruments. They didn't start playing until 10 and I only stayed 30 minutes because i was coughing so bad I was losing my voice. It ended up that one of the guys is from the US and I think he said Tennessee and they played Bluegrass. He even gave a shout out to Appalachia and the Blue Ridge Country. It was kind of cool and reminded me that that's why I like the South. The music.
The Next day we walked everywhere, we swtiched Hostels at about 10 and was finally able to find a bed for the next night because there was no room at the First Inn. We walked around the Islands and down to the Claddagh. We decided it looked like a good idea to walk down to the beach, and we were convinced that the sand looked dry enough. wrong. But we had fun doing it any way. I'll have pictures up on the picture sight soon. We found an extremely hilarious saying in the sand that a clearly emotional (emo if you will) wrote with her finger and made a perfect imprint of her shoes below it. needless to say sarah and I stopped. read. and laughed until we cried. It said "The Tears Carved a Hole Right Through my Heart." and being the terrible people that we are, we had an emo photo shoot right then and there. and even wrote a response. It was priceless it was perfect, it was awesome.
We were lucky to have sun in the morning that day, but the clouds started to roll in over the bay so we decided to try to find a place to watch the rugby game, but Scotland and Wales was one and I don't know what happened to the France- Ireland game. At that point my Advil was wearing off so we went back to the hostel for some rest, but ended up staying in and reading. NERDS. I know. I think we're going to go back to Galway on Spring break. It was such a cool town with so many good things to see and do that we didn't get to do. sad. well I'm glad we went and I would love to go back there again. We even found a "Tex-Mex Irish European Cajun" restaurant named Catus Jacks. That was amazing, I had a great Chicken Quesadilla and chips and salsaaaaaa. oh my good lord, how I miss chips and salsa and queso. so good.
anyway I have to go give out my valentine's that I made last night, there were super fun to make and they all look lovely and have hilarious sayings on the inside, I'm thinking that my calling in life is creative writing, and writing for the Onion or something. In class, although I do pay attention because it is interesting and such, I write one act plays and letters, haikus, postcards, and elementary school excusal notes, all with a humorous nature to them. Almost Tea Time!
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