Archive News
New low as patients have to pay for bed pans
Date Published: 05-Nov-2009
Elderly and disabled patients across County Galway are to be hit with bills for essential health aids and appliances which they require on a daily basis – which up to now had been discarded after they had been used.
Basic facilities like bed pans, commodes, toilet frames and walking aids – which had been issued free of charge in the past – will now have to be paid for as part of the HSE West’s crippling cutbacks.
The irony is that these are the same essential aids which, in the past, health authorities declined to accept back from patients who no longer needed them – from crutches that had outgrown their use for patients who had recovered from fractures up to wheelchairs being returned by the families of patients who were now deceased.
An internal memo has been circulated within the HSE in Galway outlining the costs for the various pieces of equipment which are essential for the elderly and disabled.
The charges – many of which are outlined in the memo – will be imposed on patients irrespective of them being on a medical card.
And in a worrying development, the charges will also apply to terminally ill patients as the HSE have been accused of being “callous”.
“They are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” remarked Deputy Paul Connaughton who says that the HSE are determined to hit the most vulnerable people in society.
Some of the medical aids mentioned in the memo are items which many elderly and disabled require on a daily basis. In the memo, which was circulated in the past week, it provided a detailed price list for some of the equipment that is commonly required by those with immobility problems.
For example, a bed pan will now cost patients €23, a commode is €35, a back rest is also €35, a charge of €64 will be applied for a toilet frame, a drip stand will be charged at €100 with a catheter stand setting patients back €20.
It is understood that crutches and walking aids which patients require when leaving hospital will also result in a charge being applied – regardless of whether they return them or not.
Deputy Connaughton said that the HSE had now reached “a new low” and by imposing charges for essential medical aids could not be tolerated. “The bottom line is that if a 90 years old woman required a commode in their home or something as basic as a bed pan, then they will have to cough up for the privilege. This is reprehensible”, he said.
According to the memo, these basic aids and appliances were no longer being purchased by the HSE and if patients require them, then they will have to pay for them.
The memorandum concluded by saying where existing equipment is no longer in use in patient homes, the stores department need to be advised for return of this equipment so that it can be recycled.
Deputy Connaughton said that the HSE’s “get tough” policy on the elderly and disabled had to be resisted and he will now be raising this matter in the Dail.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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