Latest news with #AnneDee
Irish Examiner
10-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Irish Medical Organisation joins calls for Government to help get aid to people in Gaza
The Irish Medical Organisation has joined the chorus of calls on the Irish Government to do all it can to help get aid to people in Gaza. Dr Anne Dee, president of the IMO, has written to Taoiseach Michéal Martin to express 'grave concern and fear' on behalf of her organisation at what is happening in Gaza. The IMO represents 5,000 doctors in Ireland. Dr Dee strongly criticised the actions of Israeli authorities: "We are seeing blatant contraventions of international humanitarian law by the state of Israel, and I urge the Irish government to do all in its power, nationally and through international organisations to end this horror and to ensure that Israel honours its obligations under international law.' She added: "We abhor the actions of Hamas and we call for the return of hostages and an immediate ceasefire. But what we are witnessing in Gaza at the moment is mass starvation arising from a deliberate blockade of aid through well-established partnerships, by the state of Israel." She criticised the introduction of Israeli-backed aid agencies 'where the most vulnerable, who are seeking assistance, either have been killed or are putting themselves at risk of being killed or injured as they try to feed themselves and their families". 'There is no functioning healthcare system in Gaza and many of our healthcare colleagues have died, along with their patients, as healthcare facilities have come under military attack," she said. This comes as a group of 50 Irish activists are about to join a global march to Rafah in support of the people of Palestine. From June 12 to 20 they will be at the Rafah border among thousands of people to demand an end to the genocide. Cork podcast producer, Bairbre Flood, will be part of the group heading to the Rafah border. "The governments of the world aren't doing anything and the Irish government isn't doing anything. I feel like, as citizens, we have to really step up now and do something to stop this genocide," she told the Irish Examiner. Ms Flood said there are concrete steps Ireland could take. "Why hasn't the Occupied Territories Bill been passed yet? The Central Bank still allowing the sale of Israeli bonds in Ireland, the issue of war planes stopping in Shannon. These are really concrete steps that Ireland could take. I know we have a brilliant reputation and the people are really pro-Palestine, but I just don't feel like it's being reflected in the government policy. "I feel like we should be putting more pressure on America," she said. On June 12, she will be travelling to Cairo before getting onto a bus to Al-Arish. She will then march to the Rafah border. "We have about two nights camping in the desert, and then we should get to Rafah," she explained. She said one of the most important actions would be for "America to stop supplying the weapons" to the Israeli army. "The second most important thing that they need to do is open the border for all the humanitarian aid. There are thousands of trucks sitting with medicines and food and supplies for Palestinian people, and the Americans and the Israelis are blocking it from coming in. "Doctors and medics who've gone over there are coming back and telling us they're seeing children with gunshot wounds to the head, deliberately targeted by the Israeli and shot in the head. We're getting such a mountain of evidence, "I really feel like most people want this to stop. They want Palestine to be free and for the Israelis to leave Gaza," she said. Read More Deadly shooting by Israeli forces near Palestinian aid site in Gaza
Extra.ie
28-04-2025
- Health
- Extra.ie
IMO boss stands by her claim that ‘HSE hates docs'
The president designate of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is standing by her claim that the Government and the HSE 'hate doctors' in the ongoing difference of opinions over weekend working in our hospitals. Dr Anne Dee made her comments to consultants at the organisation's annual conference in Killarney on Saturday and echoed the remarks yesterday. Speaking on RTÉ Radio, she said: 'I spoke for hours at the conference and I spoke for one minute to the consultants and I briefly mentioned this. I don't deny I said it, and I am not saying I don't believe it. Bernard Gloster, CEO, HSE and Dr Anne Dee, IMO President and Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Mid-West Region. Pic: Shane O'Neill/Coalesce 'I wasn't referring to the CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, who did come [to the conference], was very open and spoke very honestly about many issues. 'However, there does appear to be an attitude and an atmosphere of hostility from both organisations [the Government and the HSE] towards doctors. 'A typical example would be the recent attempt to suggest that if only consultants were on the floor at the weekends, then we wouldn't have a trolley problem.' Bernard Gloster, CEO of the HSE. Pic: HSE Questioned about remarks made by Mr Gloster, who said the issue of weekend working is not only about consultants, Dr Dee added: 'I think [doctors are being singled out] when this particular message came out from the Department of Health recently, but [if] you're on a programme, you need a team so when you go to hospital, you're not treated by a single consultant, you're treated by a team which the consultant leads. 'If this isn't managed carefully, what you're doing is, you're putting consultants on at weekends without their teams and then you're having teams working during the week without their consultant.' Dr Dee dismissed as 'pure spin' HSE figures indicating waiting lists are down due to doctors working at weekends. She said: 'You don't hear anybody [in the HSE] talking about what happened at Easter, where the doctors were also on the floor, but because it was a busy weekend, the result was not any great significant reduction.' A spokesman for Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said: 'The Minister for Health looks forward to meeting with representatives of the IMO in the very near future.'
Irish Examiner
26-04-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
IMO claims HSE 'hates' doctors
Doctors are being blamed for problems in the health service by government and HSE who 'hate' them, incoming president of the Irish Medical Organisation has claimed. The organisation's AGM heard tense discussion of plans for 'up to 10%' of health workers to work weekends from later this year with HSE ceo Bernard Gloster on Saturday afternoon. Dr Anne Dee is taking over as president from this weekend. Speaking directly to hospital consultants earlier on Saturday, she said: 'You're working in a system that is impossible, you're being blamed for its failings and you're easy targets in that regard I think.' She went on to say: 'I can never understand and I think it is actually unique to Ireland why the government appears to hate doctors, and why the HSE appears to hate doctors, it just seems to be kind of sad.' She described consultants as 'easy targets'. She later clarified her comments were not directed at Mr Gloster, but insisted: 'But I do feel strongly that there is an underlying hostility towards doctors on the part of many, many people in the HSE and the Department of Health.' Doctors warned opening up services on Saturdays and Sundays without increasing the workforce will mean closed clinics on Tuesdays for example. Dr Peader Gilligan, on the IMO consultants committee, said staff are 'fully-committed' to their patients. 'Pick a day of the week that you're not going to turn up, you'd find it quite challenging to pick a day that wasn't going to have a significant patient impact,' he said. He added: 'that's exactly what we're being asked to do. You're now being asked within your contract 'we want you to work Saturdays, we want 10 hours on Saturdays but you're entitled to that time back'.' Dr Matthew Sadlier, head of the IMO consultants' committee, described the concerns in what he called 'my open letter to the health minister'. Ms Jennifer Carroll MacNeill did not attend the conference, citing a previous personal engagement. He said: 'You're talking about a fundamental reset of in-patient hospital care.' Consultants already run an on-call system at weekends. 'This will now mean we will have to have a similar system running on a Tuesday, a Thursday, a Wednesday to cope with what happens when consultants aren't there,' he said. The alternative he said is when a crisis strikes on the ward: 'the patients are down in the out-patients (clinics) and they see all the doctors run out.' However HSE ceo Bernard Gloster defended his plans, in a speech and Q-and-A session during the AGM, held in Killarney. He also highlighted how busy the services are, saying 1.8m patients were removed from lists last year. He pointed to a reduction in patients waiting on trolleys for a hospital bed between the St Brigid's day weekend and Easter weekend. 'We know that improvements in not only processes inside and outside hospital but also how we deploy our workforce are key to these types of results,' he said. He stressed weekend hours will be required from all staff. 'I think it would be probably quite a waste of money to deploy consultants on a rostered basis at weekends, if the rest of the healthcare workforce isn't,' he said. 'So therefore the proposal which I've now pursued, and which I continue to pursue, with hopefully some impact in a more sustainable way by the middle of this year, is up to 10% of the entire healthcare workforce can be potentially available to be rostered in a fair way at weekends.' He added this will 'start to improve the level of routine functioning in the health service beyond Monday to Friday.'
Irish Times
26-04-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Government and HSE appear to hate doctors, new head of the IMO says
The Government and the HSE appear to hate doctors, the incoming president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said. Speaking to hospital consultants at the IMO's annual conference in Killarney on Saturday, Dr Anne Dee said they were 'working in a system that is impossible' and were being 'blamed for its failings'. 'You are easy targets in that regard,' Dr Dee told the national meeting of consultants held as part of the IMO conference. 'I can never understand why the Government absolutely appears to hate doctors and why the HSE appears to hate doctors. It does appear to be kind of sad.' READ MORE Consultants at the conference were angry at comments by the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill several weeks ago that more consultants needed to work at weekends to deal with hospital congestion. Consultants believed that they were being scapegoated for the overcrowding and trolley crises in hospitals. The new IMO president also said at another event at the conference that non-consultant hospital doctors were not being treated with a lot of respect. In a subsequent statement issued on Saturday afternoon Dr Dee said her earlier comments to hospital consultants were 'not directed' at the chief executive of the HSE Bernard Gloster who spoke at the conference in a question and answer sessions with doctors for an hour. [ HSE told to shift staff working patterns Opens in new window ] 'But I do feel strongly that there is an underlying hostility towards doctors on the part of many, many people in the HSE and the Department of Health ,' she said. 'We see that in the blame game these people play where they blame doctors for all the woes of the health services and imply that everything would be perfect if it wasn't for doctors. The reality of course is that there are systemic issues; bed shortages, lack of resources and lack of doctors which are the underlying issues. They see us as an inconvenience, a nuisance, slow to change. 'For our part we find that hurtful and disappointing and it clearly impacts on the already poor morale of doctors around the country.' Dr Lisa Cunningham, a consultant in emergency medicine in Mayo, said she was a senior decision maker in a hospital who had 'felt the absolute point of the finger from the Minister and in certain narratives as well from the Department of Health and our HSE employers that we are to blame for the trolley crisis'. The Minister said in March that she had been 'quite alarmed' by the growth in the number of patients waiting on trolleys after the St Brigid's bank holiday weekend in February. She said she had asked the HSE to provide a deeper analysis of hospital consultant rostering in all acute hospitals, to cover a focused analysis of future periods' rostering of senior decision makers in the evenings, on weekends and public holidays, initially covering St Patrick's weekend. The Minister said subsequently that the number of patients waiting on trolleys after the St Patrick's Day bank holiday was down by more than 60 per cent compared the figure for the Tuesday following the St Brigid's bank holiday. However, Dr Cunningham told the conference that she had worked the St Patrick's weekend and it was 'one of the quietest we had in quite some time'. 'It was unusual. It was a really unusual weekend. The numbers on trolleys were not reflective of my input that weekend nor of my colleagues around the country.' Mr Gloster said there had been no intention on his part to point fingers at emergency medicine consultants or any of their colleagues. 'The first place I have to point the finger is at myself. I am the CEO of the HSE. The reality is that I am ultimately responsible for how that system functions in the lives and experiences of five and a half million people. 'I can assure you that I have no interest in pointing the finger at you or your colleagues in emergency medicine or at any other part of the system. But I do have an interest in pointing the finger at all of us together to sort it out,' Mr Gloster told Dr Cunningham.
