Dr Hilary Jones - Ireland has no health service

[LadyEloise]

I'm cross. I'm very cross !
How can an educated man, a medic, state that the country next to his has no health service on national television.
A country that shares a border with the UK ( Northern Ireland ).
In reply to Piers Morgan about countries using different strategies to cope with the pandemic, Dr Hilary Jones says that Ireland has to do what its doing because it has no health service.

That is simply not true.

We have the Health Service Executive, with about 100,000 employed in it. Much of it is free. GP visits and prescription charges are means tested. All children under 6 and pensioners over 70 have free HP care.
He did apologise on Twitter but I think, to reach a wider audience he needs to go back on the show and state the facts.
Our Prime Minister is a medical doctor.
We have a national health service. There is a free Breast Check, Cervical check,Immunisations for children and teenagers, Bowel screening etc.

What a shame neither of the two presenters , Piers or Susanna Reid could refute his claims at the time.

He said this yesterday morning.

This lorming he corrected himself and apologised.

He said they we having an intense debate and got himself confused.

I am irish, I get it. It pisses me off when people talk crap about Ireland. Anywhere in Ireland.

But he already issues an apology and admitted he was wrong.

My Dd2 lives in d4, I imagine most of her elderly neighbours have medical cards. I live in leafy suburbia, but as we have a great community school I probably know a lot of families who have cards, as parents came from a variety of backgrounds. Anyone who needs a card should have one, and this current situation should lead to a more straightforward system. Maybe.

@Notimeforaname grin It just makes me laugh how some people in England are still of the belief that the irish are drunk toothless morons who couldn't possibly have half the amenities they have. Like we havnt a braincell to rub together and we all live in shacks in the countryside

About 15 years ago there was a big Irish influx into my profession (teaching). I had two Irish friends who said this a lot and that the stereotypes they’d heard about their people since coming to U.K. were preposterous. They were street wise girls from cities and said all of the things the English thought about the Irish were 50+ years out of date.

Then one September a Male teacher started who was the definition of an extra from Father Ted. Very thick accent that caused the cockney kids to go “Eh?” whenever he spoke. From the first morning in the staffroom it was clear he was the stereotype of the Irish that my friends were so annoyed at. He would pick up things- copies of the Metro, whiteboard markers, remote controls, forks- look at them with confusion and say,
“What’s all this about then? It’s it an English thing?” He told stories about his childhood, growing up on a farm with his 8 brothers, that sounded like something out of Angela’s Ashes. He claimed that his packed lunch that he took to school was “a piece of wrapped up bacon and milk in an old whiskey bottle”. He claimed never to have seen a shower until he came to London six months previously. He was very confused about them and didn’t like that he couldn’t soak his feet properly in them.

To this day I think he must have been taking the piss. He was born in 1978 for Gods sake!

I don’t agree with what he said but I’m in Ireland and I think it’s an absolute disgrace that I have to pay 50 euros to see a gp every time. Can you imagine how expensive that gets for a family , no other European country has to pay as much as this. We both pay taxes and I just think it’s so wrong. Also for over 6’s we pay too..
I went to a+e once in 9 years as my dc had a bad rash and v high temp and was charged 100 euros. I think our health system needs a overall, it’s ridiculous for such a small country..

Christ get over it. There isn't a free health service (About 30% have a medical card.) That's what he meant.

A huge number of us complain about the lack of free healthcare, the costs and the two-tiered system frequently. (Bet these boards have many complaints about it too.). Let's not get all up in arms because someone English said the same (and worded it badly).

That aside, the British government has made such a balls of it and there will be a huge number of hospitlisations and the NHs, free or not, will be overwhelmed. There should be less of a mess here for the HSE, regardless if some of us need to pay to be in hospital (and pay after treatment, not to get it).

Irish don't have council tax? Wow. That's a bonus, surely.

How do they pay for public services? Just curious?

Ach, now if the dear doctor did not have his facts correct-
more to pitied than scolded!

I have studied different health systems as part of a course I was doing. No system is perfect, Single payer systems (like the NHS and the free part of the Irish system) tend to have rationing problems. Insurance based systems, like many of those on the continent) have problems with rising costs. What can be said is that the NHS used to be the envy of the world. That was before the Thatcher, Blair and subsequent Tory governments "reformed" it. The Irish system is half single payer, half insurance based. The free system has also been subjected to radical and damaging cuts, and is now barely keeping its head above water

According to my friends in NI people are travelling en masse from near the borders in ROI for healthcare. That wouldn’t be the case if it was free for all.

That is mostly dental care, some ni dentist practices have package deals. I have spent years sorting out the nhs dental care from my youth, so wouldn't head north!

@Ohdearymeshame we pay for bins and utilities individually as they are all privatised. We also pay higher taxes and PRSI (pay related social insurance). We earn on average a lot more than the U.K. but we pay a lot out if we earn

To this day I think he must have been taking the piss. He was born in 1978 for Gods sake! I believe you're right. A leg puller 🤣🤣 DD's teacher has a thick country accent, he is very funny, he definitely takes the piss, the stories he tells the DC of when he kissed the blarney stone for the gift of the gab he's about 30.

Ohdearmeshame
We don't have council tax but have a horrible property tax.
The Irish won't pay for water but have to pay properly tax on a home they have a probably big mortgage on.

@AllTheWhoresOfMalta
To this day I think he must have been taking the piss. He was born in 1978 for Gods sake!

He was definitely taking the piss. Confused by showers, forks and whiteboard markers in 2005?!?

@Ohdearmeshame We also pay for school books, stationary, school activities too.
Money disappears quickly.

@angelikacpickles it was the milk in the whiskey bottle that got me.

Hilary Jones is obviously an idiot. I was shockeď when we lived there re cost of visiting doctor/dentist...BUT our ds2 had hip displasia and Temple Street was bloidy fantastic as was the care I had during my pregnancy and elective csection.

AllTheWhoresOfMalta I think it's safe to say he was taking the piss
He sounds like a right laugh

From what I read on mumsnet, vets seem cheaper in Ireland. Ddog attended a vet who used to work with Noel Fitzpatrick.
I think the main problem is access to the public system, different consultants and disciplines have different waiting lists. ENT is very long where I live, but once you see a consultant treatment is fast; plastic surgery is slow, immunology is fast.

I think it was probably just clumsy language. What he almost certainly meant is that there isn't an equivalent to an NHS. The system is good but different, so decisions about how to tackle this virus will be done differently. Life is too short to get hung up on things like this.

C4 news had an item on nhs staff in Wales being trained in testing and caring for Corona patients. My dd is hse staff, newly trained in the same. I hope the Irish strategy works, for her sake and all around me - I'd love the herd immunity theory to work, but currently it seems unlikely.

AllTheWhoresOfMalta was it this fella?

The Blarney Stone is currently not available to kiss.

Irish Times reporting that Leo will address the nation at nine. I think we have forgotten the election now.

Just seen this. Omg. What do you think he is going to say?

Lockdown?
Or ask us not to go to coffee shops and parks?