Thur 2nd Feb 2012

Changes to the delivery of ambulance and nursing home services will have a devastating impact on the lives of thousands of families in the east Cork area, according to local Sinn Féin TD Sandra McLellan.

Speaking in the Dáil this week on the HSE’s National Service Plan, Deputy McLellan said:

“Some of the headline issues arising from this plan have been well highlighted. It is clear that the heart will be torn from our public nursing homes. We have already seen the ball start to roll in this regard. In Laois, in Athlone, in Dublin to name but a few. In my own area of east Cork facilities and beds are under threat in Fermoy and Youghal. Youghal Community Hospital is in danger of losing eight beds. The effect of this will be to leave vulnerable elderly people and their families at their wits end. Will there be a place available for my elderly loved one? If not, why not? Home help hours are being cut at the same time, as the state seems to be abandoning their duty of care.”

“Similarly the so-called “reorganisation” of pre-emergency care is causing considerable concern, and quite legitimately. Ambulance response times for 2011 were below target right across the board, yet the HSE somehow expect that by redeploying the same staff over longer periods in less sophisticated vehicles that this system will improve. This is simply unbelievable. Areas are up in arms.  I commend the work of the Save Youghal Ambulance group which has been fighting for the retention of their ambulance service in the face of proposed downgrades. The plan as outlined will cost lives and needs to be resisted.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork East Sandra McLellan has condemned the Government’s
handling of the proposed septic tank charge and called for the immediate
establishment of agreed standards and an appropriate funding mechanism for
those who have to carry out repairs or upgrades.

Speaking in the Dáil on the Report Stages of the Water Services
(Amendment) Bill 2011 Deputy McLellan said:
“The fact that we don’t know what standards must be met at this late stage
is completely unacceptable. The Minister must publish standards before any
bill is passed. Otherwise we are being asked to vote for standards which
haven’t even been drafted let alone agreed. The Minister has conceded that
he will now commence on a 4 week consultation process before any standards
are published. This is not good enough. The standards need to be published
the bill voted on.
She added,
“The potential cost of repairs and upgrades that might be needed will
place an unbearable pressure on some people. It could be the straw that
breaks the camel’s back for many. Sinn Féin fully supports the upgrading
of septic tanks. We fully agree that ground water and the environment must
be protected. But the legislation before us is a knee jerk reaction to EU
regulations. The bill is brought in under threat of fines from the EU for
the failure of consecutive governments. The bill as it stands demands that
any upgrading must be funded by the householder. This again is completely
unacceptable. A fund must be established to assist householders to meet
the payment of any repair or upgrade.”
She concluded,
“Hundreds of millions of state funds were invested in urban wastewater
systems. The same support must now be given to rural householders required
to improve their septic tanks.”

 Paying Anglo bondholders while nursing home beds close is ‘senseless’ – McLellan

The Government’s insistence this week to pay €1.25 billion to unsecured, unguaranteed bondholders of the defunct Anglo Irish Bank at a time when vital health services for our elderly and infirmed are under threat has been branded as ‘senseless’ by Cork East TD, Sandra McLellan.

Speaking in the Dáil on a motion opposing the payment the Sinn Féin Deputy said:

“It is impossible to separate the decision of the Government to pay this vast sum to speculators and gamblers from their decision to guarantee cutbacks for our health services.”

“In the HSEs National Service Plan for 2012 it is proposed that almost 900 community nursing home beds in the public sector will be closed this year. Vital services in Youghal and Fermoy are under threat because of this. Retirements, the recruitment embargo, and decreased funding means more and more families will be under pressure. Funding for home help and carers, as well as the crisis in our acute and primary care services will leave older people completely vulnerable. This situation is totally preposterous.”

She concluded,

“The economic strategy being implemented by this Government is senseless. As a direct result of it devastating cutbacks to essential public services in health, education and social welfare are being forced on individuals, families and communities. Sinn Féin has proposed a real alternative. There is a better, fairer way, which Labour and Fine Gael are choosing to ignore.”

Sinn Féin TD for Cork East, Sandra McLellan, has claimed the ambulance service in the HSE South area is at breaking point and that the planned reconfiguration of the service will drive it over the edge.

Speaking in response to leaked HSE memos Deputy McLellan said:

“Internal HSE memos revealed by the Corkman this week confirm that there were several instances when areas in Cork were left without adequate ambulance cover due to new work directives. The HSEs answer to this appears to be to ask ambulance crew to routinely cover on-call after already working a 16 hour day. This is completely outrageous and in direct contradiction to earlier instruction issued in May.”

“It beggars belief that the HSE would expect ambulance staff to be in any fit state to deliver appropriate care after such a long day. The role paramedics play in the pre-emergency care of patients is vital. I have said from the outset that the HSEs plan to reconfigure ambulance services is seriously flawed. I have called on the Government and the HSE to invest in the ambulance fleet and in ambulance personnel. The recruitment embargo continues to have a devastating effect on the service.”

“This series of internal communications highlights the fact that the service is at breaking point, with insufficient staff and an inappropriate skills mix to deliver the service in the new dispensation. That the HSE would even contemplate reconfiguring the service without addressing these deficiencies is life threatening.”

Related Video: Save Youghal Ambulance – Protest Walk 29 July 2011

Youghal Author’s Book Recalls Shared Experiences In Cancer Treatment.
By Christy Parker

THE INTIMATE AND COMMUNAL STORY OF CANCER PATIENTS undergoing day treatments in Cork University Hospital is the topic of Keep Smiling, a touching, educational and, ultimately, entertaining new book by Youghal historian Michael Hackett. The work is based on the author’s encounters and experiences across thrice-weekly visits to the Dunmanway Suite, Cork University Hospital’s haematology unit, for almost two years.

The book was officially launched at Youghal GAA’s headquarters by retired local nurse Agnes O’Sullivan. Youghal Mayor Eoin Coyne was amongst a 200-strong attendance that also included CUH staff and cancer survivors.

Part diary, part documentary and totally uplifting, Keep Smiling comprises 124 pages and 96 photos. Laden with observance and anecdote, it provides a fascinating account of the day-to-day occurrences in a hospital unit as reflected in the lives of those obliged to reside there and those in whose care they are placed. It reminds us of fragile mortality, the unavoidable sadness of life and how swift is its passage. Yet principally, it reveals our extraordinary capacity to find hope, joy, laughter, bravery, tenacity and sharing amidst sadness, loss and frightening uncertainty.

Local recoveries

Amongst many names and faces whose stories are documented are several that will be instantly familiar to readers in the west Waterford region. They include panel Youghal beater Niall Mills from Clashmore and Gerard Trihy from Piltown who runs an agricultural machinery business and supermarket. Niall was diagnosed with cancer 14 years when aged just 13. He has long been in remission now but returns for the hospital once yearly for a check-up. The book recalls his delight when the CUH Christmas party Santa handed him an envelope with £100 within. Gerard’s 18 month battle against multiple myleloma culminated in the successful stem cell treatment that enables him to indulge in “skiing in Austria” for holidays.

Sad endings

The book’s cover portrays a woman in a wedding dress. She is Katrina King Murphy, and she “was a truly wonderful person,” says Michael. Katrina, from England originally, had been fighting leukaemia for over six years. “She was a social worker and after a session of chemotherapy would go straight to work in Liberty Street to help others, recalls Michael. “She always wore a smile and never more than when showing us the photos of her wedding to her boyfriend Frank Murphy in Lanzarote in July 2009. Sadly, she died three months later.”

Also included is an account- written by her family- of the fatal illness borne with courage, dignity and good humour by Mary O’Donoghue, nee Neville of Neville’s Drapery, Youghal. In a story that also compliments the level of care provided at the hospital, we read that Mary, who carried a childhood phobia of hospitals, was content to spend all but her very final days amongst those she came to call here friends amongst those corridors.

An unusual, tragi-comic story concerns Michael’s efforts to contact Sheila, the widow of Jeremiah Corcoran from Newcestown and whose husband’s tale he wished to include. Amazingly, his letter reached another Sheila Corcoran in the same village. She too was a widow, whose husband’s name had also been Jeremiah. Both men had died in CUH within five months of each other! “My letter seeking approval went to the wrong Sheila Corcoran and, thinking I had net him, she sent me a photo of her late husband whom I had never met,” explains Michael. “In the end I included both men in the book.”

The patients featured account for three genres: those who recovered, those still in treatment and those who passed away. Also represented are “the frontline staff at CUH who do such a fantastic a job that attending the Haematology unit can actually be a pleasant experience!” say the author. He hopes his book will encourage those suffering illness will take strength from its contents. “Don’t despair of attaining goals when bad news arrives,” he advises. “There is always hope and much to savour in every day.”

Keep Smiling costs €10 and available from bookshops in Youghal, Piltown and Ardmore, or Michale Hackett at (024) 92630. All proceeds to Research and Development, Leukaemia Section, C.U.H.

YOUGHAL HISTORIAN’S GREATEST STORY

By Christy Parker

A phone call from his doctor on November 27th 2008 began Michael Hackett on the long journey of hospitalisation that would culminate in his book Keep Smiling. He had been “going downhill” for a few years with an undetected condition. Finally a blood test discovered he had a bone marrow condition that inhibited the production of blood platelets, the bodies that that enable the blood to clot. The condition affects only one in five million people and effectively inhibits the production of red blood cells. Aged 64, he was probably one bad cut away from bleeding to death.

A former post master with 50 years’ service behind the counter, Michael had written ten books on his native Youghal. Now the most difficult chapter of his life would be writ as he undertook thrice-weekly trips to Cork for blood and platelet transfusions. “I’d given blood for over 30 years and I got it all back in a year!,” he smiles. Eighteen months later, exhausted, iron amassing in his blood and his future –if any- looking highly uncertain, a Youghal friend Nora May Joyce, gave him a Padre Pio relic. “I was pretty low at the time,” he recalls, “and I prayed.”

New drug

Describing himself as “averagely religious,” Michael remains open minded towards what happened next. “My specialist, Dr. Mary Cahill, referred me to Professor Ted Gordon Smyth, in St. George’s Hospital Tooting, London,” he recalls. “I travelled there at my own expense. Dr. Gordon Smyth introduced me to Romiplostim, a new drug developed by Amgen and not yet then on the market. I agreed to be a guinea pig.”

His treatment started in July 2009 and every Wednesday since, he receives a Romiplostim injection at CUH. His blood is now practically normal, he is “in great form” and suffers no perceptible side effects as he cautiously “takes each day as it comes,” in his recovered state.

During the many hours of treatment at CUH, doctors had advised that he write to while away time.  Last January he returned to the semi-log he had compiled on those with whom he had shared that difficult time. All had at one time shared the same “question mark” of their future, he remembers.

Looking back

As paths crossed on the uncertain journeys, they had coped and helped each other to cope, suppressing and banishing fear, creating order, purpose and humour in the everyday camaraderie and distractions. “You can’t overestimate the power of someone’s smile in those circumstances or the persuasion of positive body language,” Michael comments. He traced survivors and next of kin. He wrote about them and he remembered how, always, they had tried to keep smiling.

Sometimes too he thinks of a neighbour in Ardsallagh, the late Edmond Lenigham. “When I was very low and unable to go for any more than short walks, I would often meet Edmond,” he recalls. “He was always interested in how I was getting on. Then he died of a heart attack four months ago, amidst an active and happy life. He was ten years younger than me. It’s hard to see the logic….,” he wonders.

From where he stands now, Michael readily and unsurprisingly, reflects that his experience taught him “to appreciate every moment of every day.” He strongly advises that the time to do what one years to do is “now, not tomorrow or next week or next year.” Then, even if unwell, “you can still achieve some goals within your parameters,” he advises. “I went to Spain to see my grandchildren a few times, with the help and blessings of my doctors. Whatever you can do to boost your happiness or fulfil a dream, do it.”

Click on image to enlarge

On the road again for Headway

The run kicked off in Youghal at 12:00pm on Sunday August 29th 2010, continuing on through Dungarvan, Cappaquin and Lismore before steering back to Cork City for a party at the Clarion Boardwalk that afternoon. Photo/Video www.youghalonline.com Email: news@youghalonline.com

Motorbike enthusiasts from all across the country were asked to don their helmets and rev there engines for brain injury this August as Cork Lions Club roar off on an epic run to raise funds and awareness for Headway.

Founded in 1985, Headway works to bring about a positive change to the lives of those with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), by providing vocational, community, rehabilitative and psychological support services. Given that road traffic accidents account for more that half of all brain injuries reported in Ireland, Cork Lions Club feel that a Motor Cycle Run is the perfect way to support Headway and promote safe road use at the same time.

For further information:

Event Organiser: Declan Moon 086 2567394 moondeclan@gmail.com

Cork Lions Club: Teresa Dineen 087 696255

Headway: Paula Larkin 021 4871303 paula.larkin@gmail.com

Click on the image to start slideshow of the start of the run

* Headway offer services and support to people affected by acquired brain injury (ABI). In many cases people with brain injury have no obvious physical disability but the effects can be profound and unique to the individual. Brain injury can happen to anyone at any time in life and can be the result of a road traffic accident, or a blow to the head, stroke, haemorrhage, infection or tumour.

* It is estimated that up to 30,000 people are living with the effects of a brain injury in Ireland. Road Traffic accidents are the biggest cause of injury to Headway’s service users. A recent study in Beaumont Hospital found that , of patients with serious head injuries, 50% were not wearing seat belts in there vehicles, and 50% of cyclists and  33% of motor cyclists were not wearing helmets.

* The impact is often life-long, affecting both the person with the injury and their family members in a variety of ways. Due to the many and varied effects of acquired brain injury, people often have difficulty living independently, working or returning to education, participating in social and leisure activities and maintaining family roles or personal relationships.

* Headway has been supporting those affected by acquired brain injury since 1985. It provides a range of community-based services in Limerick, Cork, Kerry and Dublin along with outreach services in the South-Eastern region. Services include rehabilitation training, day activity, psychological therapy and family support, counselling, outreach, family education workshops, supported employment, community access and a national helpline on 1890 200 278

Friday, 20th November 2009
HARNEY PRESCRIPTION CHARGE WOULD SINGLE OUT THOSE LEAST ABLE TO PAY

The indication by Health Minister Mary Harney that the Government is thinking of slapping a charge on patients for every item they receive under the GMS scheme is a clear indication that they are determined to ensure that those who can least afford it, will bear the greatest burden when it comes to resolving the crisis in our public finances.

Labour accepts that there is a massive problem that needs to be addressed and that a budgetary gap of €4bn will have to be closed this year, but we do not accept that those who are least well off, such as people who are on the GMS scheme, should be forced to shoulder the burden.

The best way to make savings is the greater use of generic, non branded drugs which are far cheaper and will avoid targeting the least well off.

A charge such as the one suggested by the Minister today, will simply mean that those on the lowest incomes will be singled out and forced to pay what amounts to yet another stealth tax.

Labour believes that any additional revenue raising measure to be included in the forthcoming budget should be focused on those who can most afford to pay. For starters, we believe that there should be a third rate of tax for those on earnings of over €100,000, a proposal that the Government appears to have dismissed out of hand.

For more information, contact Cllr. Donie Daly (086) 8103886