Archive for May, 2010
Your Local Hospital to Close
Independent Group Local papers – 31st May
I am the bearer of bad news. Your nearest hospital, which has given great service to this community, is to close. In fact all such hospitals will be phased out. The County Hospital structure throughout the country, which provided an acute general service in the 20th century, will disappear in the next ten years.
I know this because this week I chaired an audience with Michael Porter. Who’s he? Professor Porter of Harvard University has long been regarded as the world’s leading thinker on strategy and for the last ten years he has been studying health services around the globe. And so this week he came to Ireland to tell an invited audience of medical practitioners, politicians, civil servants and H.S.E. executives their future.
Here’s his diagnosis of the Irish Health Service. First of all, we borrow €100m every week to keep our unsustainable health service going. So we borrow €14m every day, 365 days a year, on top of all the taxes we collect that go into our health service. To put that figure in context, every year we borrow more than we will ever put into Bank of Ireland and AIB, our two biggest banks put together, just to keep our health service going.
Add to that if you lived through the eighties you will remember hearing, over and over, that 50% of Ireland’s population was then under 25 years of age. In five years from now, they will all be heading for 60 and needing a lot of hips, stents, cancer and diabetic treatments. Add to this the other shocking fact that a recent health screening of 30,000 Irish adults found that one in five of the population is clinically obese. So we have aging, unhealthy population, living longer, that is going to put a huge strain on our health service.
He then pointed out that Ireland is like so many other countries. The more all those other countries invested in their existing hospital systems, the greater the public dissatisfaction grew with the service. The problem, according to Porter – our 21st century health service is structured on a 19th century model.
In short, the solution that has worked in Germany, Sweden and other Scandinavian countries is you stop throwing money at 19th century hospitals and you invest in preventative primary care. So doctors or GPs would operate from better equipped local clinics and then there would major regional hospitals that would have centres of excellence for certain disciplines.
Did this not sound like what Professor Tom Keane was trying to do for Ireland’s cancer services which had met great opposition? I challenged Professor Porter about this pointing out to him that people want their local hospital to stay open. He replied, “Ok then stop whinging about your current health service, it will stay in the 19th century if we stay with the current model”.
It appears the way medicine is advancing we can’t afford to have it delivered in a hospital within twenty miles of everyone’s home. We hear of people travelling from Kerry to IKEA in Belfast to buy an item of furniture. So why, if they have a serious medical condition, would they not travel a 100 miles to get the very best treatment? But of course they want that world class service delivered in their local town so they can have visits and the support of their family. But in the future, with the advances in medicine, you won’t be in hospital that long. Even today, someone suffering a heart attack is back home with probably some stents inserted and their life saved, in less than 100 hours in hospital. It is miraculous but despite this ever day occurrence, very few people are happy with our Health Service.
The message I took away from Professor Porter was if you want to save your local hospital it only has a future as a much larger regional hospital containing a centre of excellence otherwise it is destined to be a primary care, outpatient facility.
The Eurovision- Europe United around the campfires of TV
]The appeal of the Eurovision is as great as ever. I am not king of my own castle. In any house the real boss is easily identified as the person in charge of the remote control. In our house, when it comes to big TV events, control is with our twelve year old daughter, Aislinn. There is now a ritual on Saturday night. She starts rounding us up from about half past seven to get us all in place for Britain’s Got Talent. Being manipulative, well she is going to be a woman, she still gives the impression that I am the boss as she barks at her brothers or the dog to get out of Daddy’s chair. Even though I don’t have the remote control I am consoled by the fact that at least I still have my own chair.
The semi-finalists were to be selected last Saturday night for Britain’s Got Talent, a significant event if you are a fan of the show, but our twelve year old told us we were all watching the Eurovision and BGT was demoted to a recording to be viewed later. She distributed voting sheets, she earlier downloaded from the internet, together with biros and we were all at the ready for 8pm.
And it was a cracker of a show with the best interval act since Riverdance. If you missed it, it was a simple idea, brilliantly executed. They got the whole of Europe dancing. We saw them dancing in squares from Dublin to Vilnius. We saw into people’s sitting rooms via their webcams. You were left with the impression, gosh we are all the same, families sitting around the campfires of Television. I wondered who had the remote control in all those sitting rooms we saw across the continent.
The most exciting part of the show is of course the voting. But why can’t the commentators do simple math. Aislinn, was able to tell us Germany won the competition as the 32nd of the 39 countries voted. With six countries still to vote, Germany had a lead greater than 72 votes. The last six countries were just deciding the placings of the runners up, but this wasn’t so obvious to the TV commentators who kept prattling on wondering would Germany win it? Maybe they should bring a twelve year old as an assistant in future.
Ireland has a Little Secret
Apologies I haven’t updated my blog until now. In truth once the Dragons’ Den series finished on air I needed to take a break, not a vacation, a break from all the Dragons’ Den work to give sometime to my other businesses. Having said that I am still quite busy giving talks to companies, Chambers of Commerce, Business Associations and so on.
One such event was the Kilcock Business Association. There was a huge turnout in the GAA Club. Picture the scene, a massive hall, a type of indoor basketball arena and trestle tables of ten sitting down. Inside the hall they had cleverly erected the gauze line you see in a marquee so with the very large crowd and the cavernous feel of a basketball arena modified by the marquee lining I started my talk.
When I was finished, as always, I was happy to meet the long queue of people who wanted just a couple of minutes to say hello and ask a bit of advice about their own business. I always love meeting people and many flatter me, wanting a photograph or ask me to sign something for them.
I met Grace O’Sullivan in the queue. She looked like any other young, enthusiastic, business woman. She told me about her business. This was a very different business. I had noticed her business cards on all the tables in the hall earlier. She has an online company offering adult toys. I was amazed. Here we were in a GAA hall in Kilcock and Grace was advertising adult toys. Kilcock though it is on Dublin city’s doorstep, is still one of those old villages and despite its rapid growth in recent years, is still quaintly rural.
I thought to myself, wow how Ireland has changed. As I drove home I smiled to myself thinking about turning the clock back 25 years and what might have been the reaction to Grace’s business cards and flyers in 1985 or even go back to 1975. She would have been castigated from the pulpit. For me it is just another sign of how our society has evolved. I was so intrigued by Grace’s story that I asked her to write a few words for the blog telling the story of how she got into this business and here it is.
I started my research and phone calls to sell Equestrian Goods online. However, it seemed that the wholesalers are not too interested in making money as I could not get them to agree to a minimum order lower than £500 (€580, not including shipping!). I was totally disheartened, but still determined.
In early January I was searching for wholesalers online and somehow (I doubt it was divine intervention), I happened across a very good and flexible wholesaler of adult goods. After a little pang of conscience I started to research the industry and in less than a week I was selling adult toys online.
SecretsIreland.com has become a fun and enjoyable business to run. Adult toys are as individual as the people that I sell them too. The range has to be vast and there are some toys out there that I didn’t even know existed. There is nothing more fun that selling the toys that I sell, I also get the pleasure of telling people what I do and their reactions are hilarious… men blush very easily.
Even though I set up everything very quickly, I did and still am taking baby steps to build the company. For some people getting a business started, particularly online, it can be very frightening but if you work with good developers, SEO advisors and suppliers then you will find it easier. Do your research before setting up and see if you can avoid high rental costs with a retail or storage premises first. Also, don’t forge your plan may have to be change to suit the business environment be flexible and willing to change, take advice and listen to the mad ideas that friends may have. You may also go from Wellies to Whips like I did.
Thanks to Bang Ecommerce for setting up a Free Ecommerce site for me, Ring John for their SEO support and Mark Loud for his general website advice. Grace.
Hark The Taoiseach Speaks…, but not for long I bet
Independent Group Local papers , 17th May 2010
Hark The Taoiseach Speaks…, but not for long I bet
The Taoiseach did a media blitz last week.
After hiding in an apparent sulk for months, he came out and talked up the economy and the prospects of a recovery. He even acknowledged that he may have made the odd miss-call in the past. Although that fell way short for those who have demanded that Brian Cowen should say sorry for causing our economic ruin, it was a good start for a party whose critics say it doesn’t do shame or apologies.
There was a very positive reaction to the Taoiseach’s comments. The media over reacted, suggesting that this could be a new Brian Cowen, at last demonstrating real leadership.
Don’t hold your breath. Brian Cowen does not do media, never has and never will. He built up an undeserved reputation for being good on the media, when in truth all he ever did was play the Rottweiler role, admittedly brilliantly, during elections. In that regard he was as capable as Michael McDowell was, in a similar capacity, for the Progressive Democrats.
Political Parties often make the mistake of thinking that their star performer at attacking the opposition during an election will have the charisma to be their next leader. But it rarely works out like that. So whilst I very much appreciate that Brian Cowen decided to talk to us mere mortals, the citizens, I won’t be getting carried away just yet. Also I believe that unlike his predecessor Bertie Ahern – love him or loathe him - Mr. Cowen just doesn’t have the energy or enthusiasm to deal with the media 24/7. So we got a media blitz like last weekend, and now I bet he will go underground for another few months.
We are all fed up with the constant bad news.
This week there was really bad news for all the national radio stations. The top programmes on RTE radio 1 and 2FM, Today FM, Newstalk and 4FM all lost thousands of listeners from their main weekday programmes in the last twelve months. Listeners have just switched off. Why? I believe it is because we are fed up hearing the bad news over and over again. And despite the variety of radio stations available to us, there is very little choice.
Most people are struggling to survive in this recession so we are all experiencing bad days at the office. After another tough day, you get into your car to go home and all you get on national radio is persistent, depressing bad news. On RTE you will get Mary Wilson telling you how awful the news is that day. For an alternative you might switch to George Hook on Newstalk and he will be ranting about how terrible it all is. As you develop a headache you will try Today FM and there will be Matt Cooper arguing with someone. You may have heard of a new national music station called 4FM, so you tune into that for some light relief. Sorry, it has a programme just like the other three, but on this one, Tom McGurk is shouting the bad news. It is nothing but bad news followed by more bad news and listeners have just switched off.
Surprisingly one programme has bucked the trend. The Business presented by John Murray on RTE Radio 1 on Saturday mornings has gained thousands of listeners whilst all the others have shed thousands. It is a programme that is unapologetically pro-business and is positive in tone. It airs the stories of how small and large businesses are successfully coping with the huge challenge posed by this recession. I believe everyone knows how awful this recession is, and is fed up listening to radio shows competing with one another to tell the greatest horror story of all. We would love the media to tell us the good news of how small businesses are bucking the trend. That would be a lift for us all and would give us back some HOPE!
Missing! Half a Stadium.
Did you know that it is official, we are missing half a stadium in Dublin? As the new Aviva Stadium, the old rebuilt Lansdowne road, was launched we were all told we now have two ‘world class’ football stadia in the capital, Aviva and Croke Park. But Dublin is the only city in the world that can boast of two, three quarters built arenas. We have built two three sided stadia. So we are actually still missing roughly half of a stadium.
The GAA say they had planning problems building at the Hill 16 end, added to historical sensitivities. In the case of the Lansdowne road rebuild, it was just planning. Seemingly it would be wrong to overhang the Havelock Square houses at that end of the ground, even though there wasn’t such a problem at the opposite end of the stadium where the old south end now dwarfs the homes there. So there are only 3,000 seats at the north goal or try line end of the new stadium.
The net result is at least €1m in lost revenue from the 12,000 seats that should have been at that end of the ground, at every international game. With the way Dublin house prices have crashed, and with at least seven international games a year in both rugby and soccer, they should now just buy Havelock Square.
That way we would have at least one fully finished stadium that might compare with the world class stadia in other cities. Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, London’s Wembley and Emirates, the Stade De France in Paris and Camp Nou in Barcelona were all built in cities where there were houses adjacent. But obviously the planners in those cities saw the bigger picture.
In spite of all that, and although it is a three quarters built stadium, it still looks very handsome, so a grudging well done to all.