A cousin from Downunder was sharing their music today with Pádraig when I noticed tapping on my food. So here are just a couple of seconds of tapping that Pádraig continued for the whole song. He must have liked it!

 

I went to a conference this morning organised by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) on “Getting Healthcare in Ireland”. One of the opening presentations was given by Deputy Roisin Shortall, Chair of the Oireachtas Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare that recently presented the all-party ten-year healthcare plan, SlainteCare, which was adopted by the Irish Parliament, the Dail, without a vote. Roisin is a great politician with huge integrity and a long-standing excellent record in health politics. – When she had finished her presentation and had answered her questions she stopped by as she was leaving the event to ask how the An Saol pilot project was progressing!

In the original programme one speaker had been announced, Dr Raymond Carson, to talk about “Access to Rehabilitation”, on the day he was joined by Dr Jacinta McElligott, Rehab Consultant in the NRH and the HSE’s Clinical Rehab Lead. Raymond highlighted the fact that rehabilitation was completely under-resourced in Ireland although access to rehabilitation is, in his words, a fundamental human right. Jacinta spoke about the various plans and reports in place around rehabilitation. – Sadly, both presentations failed to deliver what they had promised in their titles: how to access rehabilitation services in Ireland.

At the free lunch (!) I had a long chat with an old friend I had not seen over the summer, and with a young doctor who had just recently arrived in Ireland and how had worked previously in other European countries, among them Germany.

Overall, the doctors mainly focussed on their own needs, rather than those of their patients.