The Healthcare System in Ireland
Overview of the artifact: The artifact that I have chosen to be apart of my portfolio is an essay written on the topic of the Healthcare System in Northern Ireland. During my time in Ireland, I focused on the healthcare system and how it was different from ours here in the United States. This is a meaningful artifact to show my time here at Agnes Scott College, as being a pre-med student this shows that I am able to find topics in every situation that pertain to my interests and especially in the medical field. With the aspirations of becoming a surgeon, I like to find and explore ways that we can improve the healthcare system and the health of our people. This was such a meaningful experience as well as before I have never considered the effects of universal healthcare or even different types of systems around the world. It was an opportunity to open my eyes to a whole new world. With this new incite, I would like to do more research into the matter and be able to better the system. And the world now with coronavirus, I find it very important for people to have a concern with how the healthcare system is operated and how patients are treated. I hope to able to keep the ties I have made therein Ireland and hope to work with in the future to be able to improve the system for all.
“Peers” by Jordyn Forbes is licensed under CC BY NC 4.0.
While on my educational trip to Northern Ireland, I learn so much about the country and the people. With my admirations to go into the healthcare field, I kept my eyes peeled for something along those lines. To my disappointment, there were people walking the streets with bad backs, wheelchairs, or crunches everywhere we went. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland both have universal healthcare for their citizens. Universal Healthcare is a system that provides quality medical services to all citizens. The federal government offers it to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. (Amadeo) As with everything, there is a good and ugly side. Universal healthcare sounds great on the outside; however, in Ireland, very few people have access to full coverage services that universal healthcare promises and the “regular” option that the rest of the population has limited access to, as well because the government is in charge of the healthcare system it is not the best it could be and barely little is done to fix the problems. So how can we improve this broken system? First, we must be able to have an efficient healthcare system for the people of Ireland to have access to.
Do you have to wait in line waiting for a life saving procedure? Everytime you need to see a doctor you need to sign up? For lack of better words, take a ticket and wait for your number to be called. This is an everyday process in Ireland. With universal healthcare, the government is in complete control. Ranging from what procedures you have access to, when and where you get your normal check up to what who is deemed unworthy of a certain procedure/medicine. The government has the right to tell you to go home without the medications and treatments you need or you are out on a waitlist. “To cut costs, the government may limit services with a low probability of success. It may not cover drugs for rare conditions. It may prefer palliative care over expensive end-of-life care (Amadeo).” The quality of care is at risk when you have universal healthcare. Everything’s the same across the board for every single person. Is every person the same? Universal healthcare puts every citizen on the same level. This means if you have an uncommon disease there is most likely not a program for your treatment. We heard this first hand with the story from Ronan and his son. He told us that his son has a rare growth disease and going to the regular hospitals and clinics did not help and could not figure out what his son had. In order to find what Ronan’s son had they had to put in extra time and money in private healthcare to finally understand what he had. This was a long and drawn out process. Time has proving to be the struggle of the universal healthcare system in Ireland. In the news, the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast has been in decline. They have reported to have the most notable increase in waiting times. “The government says 95% of patients should be either treated and discharged, or admitted within four hours of arrival. It also says that no patient should wait longer than 12 hours (Connolly).” Antrim Area hospital reported the most notable improvement of seeing people, but that was within the 12-hour target. Since 2013/14 the number of people arriving at emergency departments increased by 1.5%.
While the numbers are getting better for the waiting times, how is the service when you finally are able to see someone?
“Those long waiting times mean that private – or better still ‘high-tech’ – hospitals can be an attractive option in Ireland. That’s one of the reasons that private healthcare insurance remains popular (TransferWise).”
“DATA” by Jordyn Forbes is licensed under CC BY NC 4.0.
Although Ireland provides healthcare for its people only 30% have medical cards (Health Service Executive). These medical cards allow you to receive all medical procedures and medicines free of charge. The other 70% have the same access to all the hospitals, however it make be free or they will have to pay for their care. So this had me thinking: Well how do I get this medical care? My research was somewhat a dead end as when I tried to access the page and see what the application looked like I had to have a sign-in. But a-last I prevailed! Finding out sadly that it is like our system in the United States for which you should be rewarded with government funding for school or if you should be able to receive medicare. Yet again the government must tell you if you are poor enough for free services. “Many people don’t bother applying for a medical card as they think that it will be too complicated or that they probably won’t qualify … (Herdotie)”. Although the government provides health care to a certain extinct, there is another option: Private healthcare. With private health care it is somewhat what we have here in the states. You pay into your care and when needed there to an amount and you pay the difference. In private care, you have access to better care and the waitlist is no more. This is because you are paying for it and this makes the doctors happy as they are being paid more. With the topic of quality popping up, Ireland is pretty high up in this ranking at 13th in the global healthcare ranking with the score of 88.4 out of 100 (Newstalk). But there is a catch! This is if you can receive the care and services. “The Health Service in Ireland is not what it should be. Progress has been made but resistance at all levels is significant due to the mistrust and miscommunication between the managerial and clinical personnel which have built up during the past number of years. The trust of the public is at an all‐time low. However, once patients are within the system they are satisfied with their care (Collins and Joyce).”
(All Photos are by Jordyn Forbes is licensed under CC BY NC 4.0.)
Work Cited
Amadeo, Kimberly. “Why America Is the Only Rich Country Without Universal Health Care.” The Balance, 12 Mar. 2019, www.thebalance.com/universal-health-care-4156211.
Collins, Chris & Joyce, Pauline. (2008). Focus on quality in healthcare in Ireland. International journal of health care quality assurance. 21. 219-28. 10.1108/09526860810859067. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5276439_Focus_on_quality_in_healthcare_in_Ireland
Herdotie. “What You Need To Know About…Getting A Medical Card.” Her.ie, Her.ie, 18 Dec. 2014, www.her.ie/life/what-you-need-to-know-about-getting-a-medical-card-112070.
Newstalk. “Ireland Places 13th in Global Healthcare System Ranking.” Newstalk, Newstalk, 19 May 2017, www.newstalk.com/news/ireland-places-13th-in-global-healthcare-system-ranking-535281.
TransferWise. “Healthcare in Ireland: A Guide to the Irish Healthcare System.” TransferWise, TransferWise, 9 Nov. 2017, transferwise.com/gb/blog/healthcare-system-in-ireland.
“Who Can Access Health Services in Ireland?” HSE.ie, Health Service Executive, www.hse.ie/eng/services/find-a-service/eligibility.html.
https://www.thebalance.com/universal-health-care-4156211
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-33290033 http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1916570,00.html
