Patients tell Padraig O'Morain about their hospital ordeals.
Four years ago, John, in his mid-20s, fell off his bicycle and fractured his collarbone. He was X-rayed and told to wear a sling. Though his specialist was satisfied with his progress, his shoulder drooped and stiffened and he was in pain. His GP feared he would have permanent damage. He was sent for another X-ray and was told he was on a waiting-list for surgery. He heard nothing for another year, when he was told he was still on the waiting-list. He finally went into hospital on Tuesday this week, where he had a piece of bone removed from his hip and grafted on to his collarbone. He was sent home the next day even though he was unable to get upstairs to bed.
There were four other people in the ward. When they, as his father puts it, "threw him out" on Wednesday, only one of the Tuesday patients remained. The other beds were filled with new patients. It was, he says, like watching a conveyor belt.
At home, John spent Wednesday night on the sofa. His father, afraid he would fall on the floor and hurt himself badly, stayed with him all night.
Michael McMahon from Kilrush, Co Clare, had a heart bypass 13 years ago. The year before last, another blockage was diagnosed and he was prescribed medicine.
He learned he was on a waiting- list last year when he got a phone call from the hospital asking if he still wanted surgery. He said he did, and his name was kept on the waiting-list, where it had already been for a year.
He then saw an advertisement for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, made a telephone call, and had his operation in a private hospital in March. He is now feeling fine, he says.
McMahon was the only person The Irish Times spoke to who was willing to have his full name used. Others expressed a fear that revealing their identities would put them at a disadvantage with the hospital. The National Treatment Purchase Fund was set up last year to pay for private treatment for adults who have been on a waiting-list for more than a year and for children who have been waiting for more than six months. By the end of this month it will have paid for treatment for more than 4,000 patients.
Margaret began to suffer bouts of intense pain in February last year. Her GP could not get her an appointment for an ultrasound examination until July.
Gallstones were suspected to be the problem, but this was not confirmed until Margaret saw a consultant this January. The consultant told her she would have to see a surgeon, but she will have to wait until July. She has no idea when surgery will take place.
"When I get an attack the pain is terrible," she says. Sometimes, when the pain is really bad, she goes to the casualty department of the hospital. "The last time I went there they tested my heart and blood because the pain can be like the pain of a heart attack."
Margaret is scared of getting a sudden attack of pain when she is driving. She used to get an attack every month, but recently she has had an attack every week.
By contrast, her husband has had heart problems for seven years and "has received very good treatment", "a lot better than when we were in England". He has been in and out of hospital and "the heart ward is very good, there is almost one-to-one treatment from the nurses. I am really, really impressed with that kind of thing".
But Margaret is tired of her own situation. "I don't believe in a two- tier system, but I am beginning to think of throwing my principles out the window," she says.
Pat attended a hospital four years ago with back pain. It was discovered he had an aneurysm, which can cause a heart attack. He was told the aneurysm would have to reach a certain size before it could be operated on. It reached that stage last October.
As a VHI member, Pat thought he would get a bed quickly, but he was still waiting in February of this year. In the meantime, he feared having a heart attack.
In February, he went to the consultant's clinic in the hospital to press for surgery. He was admitted soon afterwards to a public bed and had his surgery. He now needs a double bypass, and will see his consultant in September about this.
He feels aggrieved that his VHI membership did not spare him being on a waiting-list and that in the end he had to be treated as a public patient.