How were hackers able to hack the HSE system?

Despite this being off topic what Dr earns 250k?
I don’t seem to be able to post a link, but just search ‘consultant salary ireland’ in Google and an Irish Times article from May 2021 should pop up. RTE reports the same.

This is the new public only consultants contract and will be worth €252,000 by the end of it. For about 10 years the contract for new consultants mandated a max of 10% private hours and a salary of ~€130,000. Prior to that point, senior consultants were on ~€250,000 and had unlimited private hours.

We are unable to fill ~500 consultant roles mainly because we have about half the consultant numbers of other countries and therefore the role has far too much responsibility and hours of work. Mind you our junior consultants working in the private US healthcare are making between $300,000 - $400,000 depending on their speciality. These are the consultants they’re trying to entice back.
 
Or perpetually whingeing GPs charging 75 Euro for 5 minute appointments. I don't understand why they get such an easy ride in the media.
Don’t worry the state is planning to make all GP care free, like the under 6’s program. There’s no plan on how to pay for it, but that’s only a minor detail.
 
I don’t seem to be able to post a link, but just search ‘consultant salary ireland’ in Google and an Irish Times article from May 2021 should pop up. RTE reports the same.

This is the new public only consultants contract and will be worth €252,000 by the end of it. For about 10 years the contract for new consultants mandated a max of 10% private hours and a salary of ~€130,000. Prior to that point, senior consultants were on ~€250,000 and had unlimited private hours.

We are unable to fill ~500 consultant roles mainly because we have about half the consultant numbers of other countries and therefore the role has far too much responsibility and hours of work. Mind you our junior consultants working in the private US healthcare are making between $300,000 - $400,000 depending on their speciality. These are the consultants they’re trying to entice back.
So, its consultants , not Doctors.
There is a difference between the two professions.
 
So, its consultants , not Doctors.
There is a difference between the two professions.
GPs are not employed by the state and the majority of other ‘doctor’ roles within the healthcare system (SHO, Reg, SPR etc) would be considered to be a consultant-in-training. So yes when I refer to a doctor, I mean a consultant.
 
GPs are not employed by the state and the majority of other ‘doctor’ roles within the healthcare system (SHO, Reg, SPR etc) would be considered to be a consultant-in-training. So yes when I refer to a doctor, I mean a consultant.
So all doctors will become consultants?
That's a fairly broad assumption and of course isn't actually happen.
If you meant consultant why didn't you say consultant?

You post inferred that all Doctors were earning €250k which incorrect.
 
So all doctors will become consultants?
That's a fairly broad assumption and of course isn't actually happen.
If you meant consultant why didn't you say consultant?

You post inferred that all Doctors were earning €250k which incorrect.
There are plenty of GP’s earning €250k a year. The figure for average earnings is artificially low since a large proportion of GP’s work part time.
it’s also worth noting that GP’s with a GMS contract receive a very generous quasi-public sector pension.
Hospital doctors receive an even more generous pension so add 30% to the salary figures you read about.
 
There’s no way that the current situation is sustainable. We’re already spending 40% of all taxpayer funding on healthcare and it’s clear that is going to exponentially increase with our aging population and the removal of private healthcare. Rather than the standard consensus building of holding hands with every employee, someone needs to create a proper vision and a timeline for cost savings. While I think many in the HSE do a difficult job with little recognition, we need to implement rather than issuing a new report or having another consultation that leads to nothing. Let the doctors go on strike and the public can understand more about the €250,000 they’re making and complaining about it.
We have a relatively small public sector in this country but we spend a lot on health, with a disproportionately large amount of that on wages.
Health spending is hard to measure since different countries but different things into their health budgets.
The worrying thing here is our relatively young population and that large spend on wages plus the gross structural waste.
 
There are plenty of GP’s earning €250k a year. The figure for average earnings is artificially low since a large proportion of GP’s work part time.
it’s also worth noting that GP’s with a GMS contract receive a very generous quasi-public sector pension.
Hospital doctors receive an even more generous pension so add 30% to the salary figures you read about.
Theres always going to some earning 250k and let's for argument sake that's net of costs they might incur by running clinics. The averages I've seen are no where near €250k and even the Irish Patients Association gives a figure of 110-140k before costs.
Those with medical card patients do earn more but we know that that's not equal income .
I thought we were discussing wages not benefits but if the average hospital doctor was on €150k after years of service the additional 30% would get them to €200k still not €250k

After saying that what this discussion has to do with the hacking of the HSE computer system is beyond me.
 
Ok so we’ve established that:

- consultants are doctors and are paid €250k
- some GPs make a lot of money, but are actually private contractors to the state
- the HSE has not invested substantially in IT services, eHealth or Digital Health

What does everyone think of the idea of utilising a national network of computers that covers 97% of the population that could allow patients to manage their own health data? That computer or should I say mobile phone attends every health visit and could just as easily carry the data between visits.
 
What does everyone think of the idea of utilising a national network of computers that covers 97% of the population that could allow patients to manage their own health data? That computer or should I say mobile phone attends every health visit and could just as easily carry the data between visits.

A couple of problems with that. First of all security - a phone can be hacked reasonably easily. Second is data security - If you are proposing that the data is stored on the phone, what happens if you lose your phone. So it would only really work if you're talking about an app with the data stored elsewhere.

In the US there is data portability between medical providers - but there is quite a stringent requirement on data protection and permission around access
 
A couple of problems with that. First of all security - a phone can be hacked reasonably easily. Second is data security - If you are proposing that the data is stored on the phone, what happens if you lose your phone. So it would only really work if you're talking about an app with the data stored elsewhere.

In the US there is data portability between medical providers - but there is quite a stringent requirement on data protection and permission around access
Humanity was able to put a man on the Moon almost 50 years ago so securing data to have a universal patient identifier is not beyond the realms of human endeavour. Lets see if we can drag our Healthcare system into the latter half of the 20th Century. I know all the evidence to date suggests otherwise but I think we can do it.
 
Humanity was able to put a man on the Moon almost 50 years ago so securing data to have a universal patient identifier is not beyond the realms of human endeavour. Lets see if we can drag our Healthcare system into the latter half of the 20th Century. I know all the evidence to date suggests otherwise but I think we can do it.

The question was asked whether phones could be used as the core storage for people's medical data - nothing to do with a universal patient identifier and data storage. I was pointing out the fact the phones are problematic as the the key device for managing medical data
 
The question was asked whether phones could be used as the core storage for people's medical data - nothing to do with a universal patient identifier and data storage. I was pointing out the fact the phones are problematic as the the key device for managing medical data
Using your phone as a key to access your data though, that shouldn't be a problem.
At the moment the same person can have multiple patient numbers in the same hospital. That is just one of the thousands of ways we waste what adds up to billions in our health service each year.
 
Using your phone as a key to access your data though, that shouldn't be a problem.
At the moment the same person can have multiple patient numbers in the same hospital. That is just one of the thousands of ways we waste what adds up to billions in our health service each year.

I don't disagree on having a single identifier. Again - the proposal was that phones be used as the storage of your data. I already said an app as the identification isn't a bad idea. But the question was about where the data is stored securely
 
Sounds very

Sounds remarkably similar to the industrial printer for government buildings that couldn’t fit into the building.
The printer problem happened after the scanner one, but shows a pattern for government procurement issues with no repercussions for those involved.
 
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