Our health service doesn't get nearly enough credit

I’ve had the good fortune, since my last contribution, to have spent a week in the care of the good people of the Galway Clinic. I won’t go into too much detail because I’m not well up on medical terminology (and have no wish to learn) and in any event, I’m fairly confident readers of the column have no great interest in the finer details.

I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions the itch. It’s an affliction that simply won’t go away. I’ve had it now for nine months and no amount of creams and medicines, not to mention heartfelt prayers and the inducements of faith healers, has had any impact on the itch. There has been some improvements in various aspects of my tormentor but no cure. The itch is impervious to prayer and cursing alike.

So, after many disappointments and failed attempts to get the dermatology people in Galway interested, at the advice of my GP, I went in pursuit of a solution via a blood test in the Galway Clinic. In no time at all the test was arranged. Don’t ask me what kind of test it was but it involved introducing a dye into the bloodstream and then checking the results for some anomaly that might explain the itch.

The solution to the itch remains elusive but, fortunately for me and for you dear readers who might have been deprived of your weekly column, the test showed up an aneurism of the aorta (again, don’t ask me, but an aneurism of the aorta is not to be sneezed at) that required pretty urgent attention. It might be speculated that the itch could have saved my life, but having been tortured for nine months, I’m not inclined to give the itch much credit.

Even so, it came about that, on Tuesday, May 14 (Four Goal Willie McGee’s birthday!), I was flat out undertaking a variety of tests, x-rays and scans to check my suitability for the aorta repair that had been prescribed. Everything was going swimmingly until the final test, a check-up on the heart, and lo and behold, if it did not transpire that the heart that had brought me up and down the Reek a thousand times, across the Bangor Trail a hundred times and up and down Kilimanjaro was showing signs of distress.

There was a narrowing of two arteries that required stents before any repair to the aorta could be attempted. Despair, you might say, grabbed me by the throat for all of a second before relief set in. Had the heart issue not been revealed, it could have been curtains.

I don’t pretend to know anything about these things and you probably won’t believe it anyway, but my understanding is that my good doctor and his wonderful team of assistants, each of whom has a specific and vital job to do, inserted a tiny camera into a vein on my right wrist and with tremendous precision pushed it up the problem area. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating, this is incredible stuff and I would not believe it myself except that I saw it with my own two eyes. I was, of course, lying flat on my back but by looking left and straining my neck I could see very clearly, on the monitor, the dimple in the vein that was restricting the flow of blood to the heart. Amazing.

And, perhaps even more amazing, three stents have since been inserted to correct the flaws and I’m at home in the bosom of my family, compiling this column so as not to disappoint you, and looking forward to the next appointment that will tackle the problem with this aneurism.

We hear a lot about hospital overcrowding and trolleys and deficient management and disastrous outcomes with huge payouts, and ministerial neglect, but we don’t hear much about the great people who work in our hospitals and who, every day are responsible for life-saving decisions, for providing care and comfort and healing for thousands of patients every year.

And it is not just the Galway Clinic. Last year I spent a couple of weeks in Mayo University Hospital. I spent time on a trolley in the Emergency Department and saw the skill, efficiency, care and dedication of the doctors, nurses and admin staff and yet I hear nothing but criticism of the health service.

There is something rotten in the state of Ireland when we can’t acknowledge how lucky we are to have the health service we have. And yes, I know there will always be hiccups and poor and even bad outcomes. But they are the exception and we generally only hear of them on the footsteps of the courthouse. I wonder if our judicial system was subjected to the same scrutiny as the health service would they come out smelling of roses? I doubt it.

Recognising Palestine 

So, Ireland has done the decent and correct thing and along with Spain and Norway has recognised the state of Palestine. That recognition won’t do anything for Palestine in the short term but, in time, it may come to be seen as a contribution of sorts to peace in the Middle East. It was to be expected that Israel would be upset. Even before the announcement, the Israeli President Isaac Herzog was on the phone to the Taoiseach seeking to bully him into a change of heart. Simon Harris stood firm and defended the Irish position.

Israeli handlers got in on the act and tried to sow confusion but fair play to Harris he stood by his guns and let Israel know that theirs is not the only side of the story. The Palestinian people also have their story to tell and any fair-minded person can see that Palestine has been more sinned against than sinning.

During their Nakba (catastrophe) which started prior to the founding of the state of Israel and which continued after Israel was recognised by the international community, the people of Palestine were hounded out of their homes. The state of Israel was built on the massacres of the Palestinian people, the forced displacement of 750,000 people and the continued expansion of the lands that were allocated by UN mandate.

Massacres and forced evictions continue to be the Israeli way. Settlers move in and take over entire Palestinian villages. Those who resist are killed, others flee. The Israeli police/army stand by and watch and more often than not support the settlers. When Palestinians protest, they are shot or rounded up and jailed.

Netanyahu says he won’t stop the war in Gaza until the last of the Hamas fighters are killed and the hostages are returned safely to their families. That surely must be the most blatant contradiction imaginable. If Hamas are even half as depraved as Netanyahu and Israeli spokespersons would have us believe then the last act they will do before they themselves are destroyed will be to have their act of revenge by killing the hostages.

And if Netanyahu thinks he can destroy Hamas simply by killing those members of Hamas who remain in Rafah then he is deluded. Far from destroying Hamas, he has created the next generation of Hamas fighters. The two-state solution that most people espouse is further away than ever. That will please the Israelis. They have Joe Biden on their side and they don’t want a two-state solution.