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GREECE CONCLUDED 12 years of European Union fiscal surveillance today which was imposed in return for bailouts after a crushing debt crisis.
In November 2009, Athens revealed a sharp rise in its public deficit that eventually led to a financial crisis across the Eurozone and wreaked havoc on Greek finances for a decade.
In exchange for bailout cash of €289 billion and to stop Greece from crashing out of the Eurozone, a “troika”, made up of the International Monetary Fund, EU and the European Central Bank, demanded across-the-board reforms from Athens.
These included deep state spending and salary cuts, tax hikes, privatisations and other sweeping reforms aimed at righting public finances.
The economy contracted by more than a quarter, unemployment spiked to almost 28% and skilled professionals emigrated in droves.
“A cycle of 12 years which brought pain to citizens, led to economic stagnation and divided society,” has ended, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
“A new horizon filled with growth, unity and prosperity emerges for all,” he said. “The Greece of today is a different Greece.
“We have recorded strong growth and a significant slide in unemployment of 3% since last year and 5% since 2019,” he added.
Ending the oversight will strengthen Greece’s international market position by increasing its attractiveness to investors.
Athens will also now have greater control over its domestic economic policy.
“The end of enhanced surveillance for Greece also marks the symbolic conclusion of the most challenging period the euro area has experienced,” Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner for Economy, said in a statement.
“The sovereign debt crisis that defined the first years of the previous decade was a steep learning curve for our Union.
“Our strong collective response to the pandemic indicated that Europe had learned the lessons of that crisis. We must show the same solidarity and unity as we navigate the troubled waters our economies are now entering.”
Greece – like other bailed-out EU members Spain, Portugal, Cyprus as well as Ireland – will still be monitored by its creditors while paying back its debts.
In Greece’s case, that will take another two generations, with the last loans due for repayment in 2070.
According to European Commission projections, the Greek economy will grow by 4% this year, much higher than the Eurozone average of 2.6%.
However, Greece’s unemployment rate is one of the highest in the monetary union, its minimum wage one of the lowest and the country’s debt is 180% of gross domestic product.
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A & E departments in this country are a complete fluster cuck… I’d hate to be a nurse trying to work in such conditions. Absolute disgrace!!!
If FG Labour get back into power this farce will continue. People wake up and vote this courpt government out.
Who’s the alternative to fix it Colm? I’m not trying to be smart but who would you recommend that would prioritise health?
Perhaps those who had to emigrate will prove lucky.
I know an Icelandic senior executive who was appointed to a superbly paid senior position in Ireland. His younger child fell down the stairs and knocked her head. Fortunately, it was only a mild concussion as it turned out but they thought that it was worse. He and his wife brought their daughter to A & E in a Dublin hospital. Their experience convinced him to pull out of Ireland because he said a third world health service would have been too favourable a description of the Dublin hospital. He was impressed by the nurses and doctors but said that they were under too much pressure with too little resource and too much delay in emergency diagnostic tests.
His remark was that he was less concerned about taxes and Irish rents as he was about health and emergency care.
The family had full private health insurance.
A friend of mine recently died of bowel cancer, having spent a lot of time in another Dublin hospital. His neglectful treatment due to over worked and over loaded medical staff was terribly and horrifically bad. His family and friends ended up doing a lot of the support claim. Nightmare.
It is no longer A&E which is crisis.
Ray Walley needs to visit the Mater ED. About 60% of all patients are non emergency there. Then you need to talk about bed blockers. A friend who did his rotation in the Mater was verbally abused by the son of a patient. He wanted to discharge an 80 year old non critical patient. She was non critical and at her aged exposed to hospital borne infections – best for all concerned. Why was the son so irate?
He simply said it was not his job to look after his mother and he was off to Santa Ponza or wherever and “counted” on his mother being in hospital.
As there was no family member to care for her, they simply had to keep her…at the expense of another patient needing a bed. These stories are ten a penny.
I’m an ED doctor and sadly you are right…
I also know of a patient with brain metastisis with who was discharged home by the Mater hospital to a sheltered complex in to the care of her daughter who herself was in the care of the HSE with little regard to her health, safety or welfare. Perhaps your doctor friend should learn to be a little bit more empathetic and not to sit in judgement over patients and their families who might be grappling with personal life circumstances, the details of which that may not be fully understood by your friend. Not everybody is born with the vocation, ability or training or the physical or mental ability to be a full-time carer with little or no respite or community support systems 24/7.
No you aren’t.
When they closed down Ed departments and made people from numerous counties converge on hospitals that had beds cut. What did they think would happen. Absolutely national disgrace. As long as the unsecured bondholders are paid their billions , let the people suffer and this what this government of fg and labour have done.
“we will end the scandal of patients on trolleys “…. Phfff.
My elderly parents are terrified of the thought of having to go to hospital. I can tell you one thing, they now know who not to vote for!
If I got a cheque for a 100,000,000 I couldn’t build a block, what is he on about,where is the hospitals he closed.
Or the wards within hospitals that are closed?
was in A and E recently, not too bad depending on the time
What’s the purpose of primary care centres ?
Everyone can see what’s wrong with the current Health System, often the mistakes are painfully evident as the government make them and the results predictably obvious, such as closing every facility in an area and then being surprised when the only hospital can’t cope with the numbers of patients having to use it. This is happening up and down the country. You can’t take 1,400 beds out of a Health System like ours without a knock-on effect, this is those beds. They’re divided between elderly people in nursing homes, people on chairs and trolleys in hospital corridors. Our hospitals now hide sick people, call it an improvement. And we accept this.
In the UK hospitals MUST see their patients within hours, if they’re then being admitted this MUST happen within another set timeframe. Not here. A patient In Ireland may be seen today, or tomorrow, regardless of their condition, age, disease etc. If they’re to be admitted, well, they could spend a week on a trolley in a cold busy corridor with no regard for age, condition, dignity, hygiene, confidentiality, if they’re immunocompromised or infected and a risk to others. The 69 year woman on a chair for the night with a broken hip will be charged the same amount as the car crash patient rushed into Resus followed by a High Dependency bed. Although she may be in more pain.
Our political leaders visit hospitals, but always previously announced, and miraculously the patients on trolleys are hidden away. It’s either amazing luck or acceptance of patients doubling and tripling up in rooms, sleeping in clinics at night and moving out during the day while they take place, in cupboards, waiting areas even toilets etc. This is how bad it’s become, and we’ve accepted it.
We need more hospitals, not necessarily big ones but smaller ‘Cottage type’ hospitals to take the pressure off the existing hospitals. Yes, something similar to what was closed in many areas doing exactly this, they don’t have to do complicated surgeries and each one have the most modern MRI, CT and up to date list of equipment, that can still be done in the main hospital. They just have to have the basics, beds, nurses, some doctors and they can take those patients often described as ‘bed blockers’ (forgive the use of this term, I don’t like it).
Imagine having just one 100 bed facility like this in each area, the trolleys and chairs would be gone overnight from all the ED Departments, probably allowing the entire hospital to relax somewhat. And the best bit, those facilities are probably already there, this or the previous government closed them. Ok, they’ll probably need some work, but it’s cheaper, and quicker, than any alternative.
What do we really expect when the primary function of our hospitals has become the enrichments of the medical/chemical industrial complex.
@Johnneary I don’t believe it’s anything quite that simple. I believe Minister Brendan Howlin said in an interview about 10 years ago that in order to have 30%, the desired amount, of our population take up private health insurance they need an incentive. If the public Health System worked perfectly they would have no need of health insurance, hence it doesn’t and, at that time at any rate, they did.
To be honest I don’t think there is any one single issue that causes the health System to collapse the way it does, and it’s worth remembering too that it does work very well for thousands of people every day. As I said we can’t take that amount of beds out of it without having an effect. We can’t close facilities with the promise of something to replace them, but nothing ever materialises. The government can stick a sign on a hospital calling it a ‘Center of Excellence’, without serious and meaningful investment it’s worthless, a joke.
We keep allowing unqualified people to make decisions about our Health System and then when everyone realises, but won’t say it openly, that they’ve made a complete balls of it – again, they hire an international expert to have a look at it. This usually takes a few years where the genuine expert will come here on a substantial contract believing they can make a difference, and they probably could if anyone would listen and act on their recommendations. But this is Ireland, if that were to happen it would mean admitting someone made mistakes, probably a lot of expensive mistakes, and doing the right thing to correct them would be political suicide. So after a few years of being ignored the expert either quits in frustration or takes a higher paid job somewhere else in ‘the system’ to shut up and nod.
The end result is that nothing changes, remember what Einstein said? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. Until we learn and stop repeating our mistakes, look at other countries with similar issues, see what they did and do the same. Don’t be dumb enough to think we can cut corners to save money. So far, I see no evidence of that happening.
Another solution is build more convalescence homes and those taking up bed space well enough to be discharged send them to the convalescence homes thus freeing up beds
But then on the other hand you’ll have people turn up at A&E with minor ailments or pissed drunk, recently I was in A&E there was a traveller pissed drunk in a wheelchair vomiting rings around himself there didn’t appear to be anything else wrong apart from being drunk. That to me is a waste of resources I’ve seen people present to A&E with tummy upsets when they could go Caredoc
Tom, basic point is we need a Minister for Health who will deal with the scandal of what you describe. Varadkar, I’m afraid, isn’t that Minister. Since his appointment, he’s behaved more like the clock watcher who’s waiting patiently for the Maths class to end rather than someone who’s willing to roll up his sleeves and do some serious reform. Based on their performance in Health, Justice and immigration, this FG/Lab government do not deserve to be re-elected. And as for the economy, that’s down to the hard work and sacrifices of the Irish workers not anything Enda the muppet did.
Heard an eminent professor on radio this morning offer this suggestion to solve the bed problem. Swap the elderly people who are occupying beds in wards, (although fit to be discharged), with those on trolleys and yippee the problem is solved!! Em, just one question, how are the elderly supposed to survive lying on trolleys in corridors?? Will the necessary medical staff be available to these beds scattered around the hospitals? Titanic and deck chairs come to mind.
Why have we not heard one bed manager from any hospital being publicly interviewed as to what she/ he is doing to alleviate the problem? Where are all the folder people? What are they doing??
Many of the elderly are non critical and should not be in a critical care bed.
Yes Tom, but what use would it be to simply place them on trolleys in a corridor!
A better idea would be for all sides in this dispute to work towards ending deadlock over the price to be paid for nursing home beds, where the fund is offering €1,150 per patient a week and AnovoCare holding out for €1,200 while over 500 people are on trolleys.
Because the hard working citizens who don’t live on handouts have to consider cost when it comes to even their health. GP is cheeper than €100 A&E fee. Very easy to visit A&E for any cough or sniffle when its all free.
This article just jumped from , sensible people putting their lives at risk by going to the GP instead of the A&E to, the situation is getting worse because there is not enough beds and the “message” is not being heard!!!??? Where is the link? What are you trying to say?
Missyb211 I think what he’s trying to say I that the ministers advice has been to go to your gp if your I’ll first instead of going to hospital and the person replied that people are foolishly taking that advice to the detriment of their health, to me that only confirms that the minister doesn’t know what he’s taking about. If you have chest pains and are having a heart attack it’s my understanding that a hospital is where you need to be and not making an appointment to see your local gp, bare in mind that I’m not a doctor. Leo thinks that if your having a heart attack you should ring your gp and make an appointment to see him and then drive or walk, taxi whatever and pay your 60 Euro to see your gp who could very possibly say for you to go to hospital, so that you can sit in a deckchair for days in the hope that you may get a trolley and then hopefully get a bed many days later. So really you could be going from a life where you carry on daily going to work paying your taxes, going on trips with your kids to the zoo etc. Just getting on with a normal life when suddenly your catapulted into a nightmare scenario where all the expectations of a civilized society are out the window and your giving contradictory and conflicting advice.
Dial 999 if you are in a position to do so,easiest way out
I went to my GP on Tuesday with chest pain (I’m a chronic asthmatic) she put me on a nebuliser and asked why I didn’t go straight to the mater hospital. I asked her does she really need an answer to that! She rang an ambulance and I got a shot of steroids. Got to the mater hospital it was packed. They kept me for 4 hours on back to back nebs. My oxygen levels were 89% and they sent me home. People wonder why people so sick don’t go to the hospital.
Remember this when you are voting folks
And on the flip side of that, people who should be going to their GP are clogging up the Emergency Depts.
Just kill the chronically sick elderly. Loadsa beds. Simples.
No don’t, only joking, no really, just a bit of gallows humour ((I’m one of them)……
I have decided not to be a burden on the inadequate Irish health system if or when I get bad news.
You can’t run a public hospital service when private patients are taking up the beds.private patients should be treated in private hospitals. Simple
To save lives,varadkar must go.for gods sake go
Hold on. Are people not being actively urged, on all the media, NOT to go to A & E Departments because of the chaotic conditions? Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.
This government has failed for 5 years in services involving the ordinary people of this country. Varadkar and Kelly n particular. They are putting people’s lives at risk and should resign now.
Does anyone in health have any idea where the problems are and how to address them. We have hospitals with closed beds because front line staff won’t work for peanuts. Does every idea to fix problems get politicised once the minister gets involve, primary health centres placed were the minister wants them not where the public needs them. The minister complains that even 100 million for health is not enough while Denis o brief walks away with a profit of 200 million on destressed assets sold by NAMA. We are being plundered by doners to politicial parties who don’t even pay tax in this country. After another five years of FG we may be told to visit vets because private hospitals don’t allow public patients. Even reeling in the years shows us running around in circles year after year because the fear of change allows corruption to contuine.
It’s all the unsensible ones that go to A&E regularly with the slightest sickness instead of going to their GP first that are the problem.
The other way around in the UK
in the UK they have the NHS direct phone service where you access a type of triage trained nurse who will advise whether you should go to A&E or GP . perhaps its a bit of a risk as the nurse cannot fully assess a patient without physically seeing them but the likes of a person ringing conplaining of chest pain would always be advised to go to A&E instead of their GP. someone with a sore toe for 3 months however would be advised to go to their gp. unless there were other problems…alot people dont know what an emergency is and what it isnt. they need advice. and common sense!!
Being elderly and in hospital is very bad for your health.
Aren’t the A&Es in many hospitals telling patients not to present? And now GPs telling patients to go to A&Es? The whole system of access is gone crazy!!! Whatever you do, don’t get sick!!
There is only one strong lobby group doing well in the mire that is our health service
At least they acknowledge there’s a problem. But if they got 100 million tomorrow, would they put it towards starting the building process for beds to go in to????
have your say