Unlocking Ireland - an unprecedented thread no. 6

[CherryValanc]

A sixth thread in Craicnet!!

Who thought that would ever happen!!? Has there even been a sixth page before?

All the Cork talk is making me lonesome. I was in UCC years ago and haven’t been there in years. Great memories.

It used to be funny when the international students would arrive looking terrified after the taxi ride from the airport. Their first contact with an Irish person and they couldn’t make out a word of the accent. I suspect the taxi drivers were putting it on a bit, mind you.

I’ve such a grá for the Cork or Kerry accent.

I love the northern Ireland accent esp Belfast. I also like the Donegal accent haven't a clue what they are saying but still love it.

Hello everyone and welcome to all the new posters! It's actually quite a nice day here today, sunny and well not warm but not freezing so I'll take that

I'd say the whole 'spare vaccine' thing is a nightmare to administer, I can see how there would be spares if people haven't turned up etc. As far as I understand each practice would have a list to refer to in that case and I've no problem with it going to people like Lucent's parents. The issue with the Beacon is that those teachers were just chosen purely because the CEO's kids attend that school! Also isn't it odd that they had 20 doses left and they were all able to drop everything and get over to the Beacon at a moments notice Cronyism at it's best. One rule for them and another for the rest of us plebs. I'm sure they knew full well that (a) it was wrong and (b) it would come out but they just didn't care, simple as that.

It doesn't look like we're going to see much lifting of restrictions later does it

Absolutely agree - if a GP has extra, they work down their list, and it needs to be actioned quickly. I think there are a number of no-shows on any given day, so there will be spares that have to be used before they go off. Depending on the catchment area of the GP, people on their list might be a lot younger than a neighbouring town/area.

Having an allocation set aside for a school that is nowhere near the hospital is a different stinky kettle of fish.

Had the Beacon phoned the school close to them and said we have extras, is anyone there able to pop over before we close - that would be fine, and within (my understanding of) the "rules".

If I was a patient in the Beacon I would be raging, insurance doesn't cover all private hospital costs. So your paying 300-400 a night, eligible for the vaccine, in the hospital and they bring in people from Bray?
They definitely should have lists of people who can come at short notice and GPs going down their list in age/health is sensible for leftovers.
But large centres should have lists provided by the HSE. Even if it's just working through nearby schools/gardai/fire stations.
Basically the state is paying for the vaccines and a private hospital CEO is deciding where they go!

No, if there are spares going and there are teachers across the road from the Beacon (which there are) l don't think many would have issues with them being vaccinated.
It's the preplanned queue jumping that's the issue here.

oops, that was meant to be a reply to @CherryValanc*

Had the Beacon phoned the school close to them and said we have extras, is anyone there able to pop over before we close - that would be fine, and within (my understanding of) the "rules".

Queen of Angels is a DEIS school, doubt it'd even register in that CEOs head. No pull to be had there, certainly not good enough for his own darlings. But I agree, if the vaccines had gone to a nearby school with no connections I doubt there'd be this furore.

I love the Cork accent and humour too. 😍
I'm thinking the teachers has vaccinations after family and friends.
Apparently on site crèche workers had theirs too.
Sad as so many young vulnerable people are waiting locked in the home for a year.

*had

I'd be ok with creche workers on a hospital site, or staff in the centra beside a hospital, anyone working inside really.
I live near a secondary school, and the exodus of teachers as soon as the bell rings is very speedy indeed. I don't think it would be easy to round them up for spare vaccine at the end of a clinic. So st Gerards staff are to be commended on their organisation.

I'm sure the guards in Dundrum could have done with the vaccines too.
But the most obvious deserving cases are the likes of Aoife Stokes' mother and Anna Daly's ( TV3 anchor ) father who are both cancer patients receiving treatment at the Beacon.
Instead the vaccines goto teachers in another county.

You couldn't make it up.

Even the stepaside gardai, if they exist yet!
Liveliness have a letter from a teacher who didn't know about spare vaccine wasn't offered it, would have refused it, and is fed up being texted about it!

Travelling around my own country is feck all use to me, tbh. I wonder if own county is vastly different to intercounty in terms of spread. Do people stop in every county along the way if they're on a long journey?

Regarding the Beacon why is this kind of thing a part of Irish life, I wonder? It's depressing, and we're all depressed enough already!

I have an inlaw, who has always been kind to me. But she would have organised a mass vaccine of colleagues if offered. In her mind she would have been helping the people she knew and liked. And she's religious, quick confession if she was concerned, probably to a priest who had been on her vaccine list.
I ran this scenario past my husband, he reckons his relatives would be able to justify it to themselves.
Ah well, our day will eventually come!

The Beacon has been a great worked example for my Welsh DH between the differences between corruption and cronyism. Cronyism much more obvious here than in the UK.

I thought the Tory boys have given massive contracts to their mates recently?
I grew up with the nhs, I find vhi etc totally confusing. Especially the fancy private hospitals like the Beacon. We have the cheapest insurance going, and have been lucky with the public system.

Egg Tories have always done that, so DH considers that normal.... its just other political groups held to higher standards it seems. Unlike here where we seem to have a low opinion of the morals of the vast majority of TDs.

Didn't they reckon the Tories had sex scandals and labour had financial scandals?
I suppose covid procurement is a whole world of opportunity for financial scandals, social distancing makes sex ones more difficult.
Irish favouritism is much more local and personal. We were in a really small town a few years ago with a fabulous cultural centre. And a government minister td with a tiny majority. The locals were thrilled, but it seemed to be very underused.

I see they're talking about simplifying the vaccine rollout by age once they've sorted out the medically vulnerable. I think that's good (even though I work in a school and would have been Cat 11 under job, but Cat 12 by age!). It will streamline the whole registration process and significantly cut the admin down. Some of those categories would have been impossible to prove or indeed disprove and would have seen massive queue jumping too.

Egg I've only ever used my vhi once, GP removed a tiny mole thing and sent it off for analysis. Could have probably just paid for it with cash.

When I had DS there didn't seem to be any advantage to private insurance - private rooms were limited and it was luck of the draw if one was available, and I would have had to pay for scans because my vhi didn't cover them.

I've had a colonoscopy, colposcopies and letzz under the public system, referred by my gp and quick appointments. Mind you, I'm in the southeast and I would think they do not fool around with colonoscopies after Susie Long. The ward in St Luke's Kilkenny is called after her and it always makes me feel sad.

If all health insurance payments and the administration costs of running the systems all went into one system...I'm sure we could find some way to mess that system too.
When I was at my nhs gp mid December (30 years ago) it was really quiet in the health centre. My gp said it was always quiet in the run up to Christmas, people were too busy to visit him.
I think a simpler age based list is probably better once top groups are sorted.

Listening to 2 GPs on Newstalk now, both working in Ireland, describing the hoops they have to jump through to become vaccinators.
Nuts !!!
And Paul Read is paid over €400,000 to run this fiasco.

Matt from Busted is apparently trained to vaccinate in England. My daughter is sad, she'd like to go and see matt from Busted!
My pharmacist is brilliant at flu jabs, my dentist is good, our vets are great. But they ain't Matt from Busted.

I've only used private health care once, a walk in swift clinic ages ago and It's a bit of an embarrassing one really.
My friends and l were having a get together in the Harvey Nicks bar in Dundrum (somewhere a pleb like me would never usually go) but my friend had some good news, so we thought we'd put our glad rags on and go somewhere nice.

Friend was late and we were laying into the cocktails, so were pretty well oiled by the time she arrived.

Her "good news" was she was now engaged to her absolute twat of a boyfriend the type who would shag a letterbox and had tried it on with 2 of us.
All of this came out and a bit of aggro started, she naturally went into defense mode "we were jealous of her, her huge diamond ring" (that someone said was fake) and all hell broke loose. l stood in between my 2 friends to break up the fight and got a nice black eye and bloody nose for my troubles.

The walk in Swift Clinic was across the road, and l managed to get seen to in 10 minutes, no broken nose thankfully. But let me tell you that diamond ring was NOT fake, hard as nails it was as my 2 week black eye proved.