Pregnant? Get thee to a hotel.

Considering Ireland is just comming out of an unprecedented boom, where wealth and resources were plentiful, it is absolutely mind boggling to read the following..from news.ie.


"A major maternity hospital is being forced to rent hotel rooms for pregnant women because of a lack of beds.

The patients were checked into Jurys Inn, just yards from the north Dublin Rotunda Hospital, yesterday.

Health officials argued the women were at the early stages of their pregnancies and in good health, but concern for their safety has been expressed by patient representatives.

Janette Byrne, of lobby-group Patients Together, criticised the move, saying it placed both the lives of the unborn child and mother at risk.

The revelation comes just days after it emerged the country’s health service chief was being awarded an 80,000 euro performance-related bonus.

“What happens if she falls or what happens if something goes wrong during the night, does she call the porter and say I’m bleeding?” asked Ms Byrne.

“I don’t want to scare people, but at the end of the day, there’s no beds, there’s no space and something has to be done about this.

“This is just the final straw when we start using our hotels as hospitals,” she said.

Rotunda Master Dr Michael Geary stressed that only those at the early stages of pregnancy and undergoing routine tests were affected.

“We’re trying to do something constructive and is safe and is sensible and is reasonably good for our patients,” he said.

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“In an ideal world we’d love to have an unlimited amount of beds, but what we’re doing here is taking a carefully selected two of three groups of patients who are well and have no symptoms and need to be in hospital because of tests on a daily basis, either for themselves or for the baby.”

Members of the public bombarded RTÉ radio’s Liveline programme this afternoon to express their concern at the move.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) defended the decision saying the provision was rolled out to cope with the large numbers of births being dealt with by the hospital.

A spokesman said: “This year, in the Rotunda Hospital alone, there has been a 14% increase in birth rates, with 830 births occurring in the hospital in August.

“This figure compares with an average of 550 for the same period last year and is well beyond all projections of growth made.

“In order to meet this exceptional demand the HSE has implemented a number of innovative short term initiatives to ensure that maternity care is provided in the safest setting possible,” he said.

The condition of Ireland’s health service has long been a source of criticism.

Earlier in the year it was revealed two women suffering from breast cancer were mistakenly given the all-clear.

An independent probe into the blunders was launched, while a review of the treatment of thousands of breast cancer patients at hospitals in Limerick and Portlaoise is to be carried out over similar concerns.

Last Friday the HSE announced its chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm was being awarded a performance-related bonus of €80,000.

It comes at a time when hospitals are introducing cuts to curtail massive spending overruns and in the wake of a total ban on recruitment by the HSE.

The Rotunda is one of three maternity hospitals in Dublin and was first established in 1745.'

I mean I don't have the words really. You're pregnant, you need a check up, you're sent to a hotel.
THe question I suppose it why?
Where the hell is the money? Wasn't there supposed to be a new hospital built? Why is it that hard to provide a decent health care system? Why are heads not rolling? Why are we content to sit back and not demand answers? What has Mata Harney got to say? Well? Anyone?