Commercial Announcement- Pet Food!

Last October Interchem, who are based locally near Naas came to me with a new range of Dogfood called PROPAK. Their timing was perfect as I had resolved to seek an alternative specialist range of food to recommend to clients. We had stocked royal canin for four years previously but I just found their 4% price increase last Oct to be the last straw and knew I could no longer promote over-priced product to clients in the year ahead. I gave the PROPAK range a trial and have had no regrets since.
PROPAK have a diet to meet any dogs need, whether it is a medical need, a breed requirement, or a special need of growth or pregnancy. The colour coded range comes in a range of sizes to suit any size of dog and owner's pocket. The puppy trial size is especially popular.
We retail PROPAK at 40 to 50 % cheaper than any other specialist food range.
I can Guarantee also that you will not find PROPAK cheaper in the county.
As Vets we stand over PROPAK and are using this diet range successfully to manage diabetes, obesity, pancreatitis, irritable bowel disease and dermatitis.

Moreover we will always support local providers when we have an opportunity to do so.

You can buy your food at rock bottom discount on our website using paypal

FW: Letter to editor - re Donal Og

A conversation at Toastmasters in Kildare last night about bullying in primary schools gave me this idea for a letter to the local papers. It is frightening, in fact, to hear of kids using terms like " gay" and " queer" as verbal abuse.
Parental attitudes still have a long way to go?..





Dear Madam,
The recent " coming out" of Donal Og Cusack has created barely a murmur in conversation, in press or on the media around county Kildare. This could be because our views around the issue of homosexuality have changed in recent years. Perhaps this issue is greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and regarded as barely news worthy. If that is the case then it is a good thing, signalling a broadening of tolerance in attitude.
It could also be because he is a hurler. Hurling is a minority sport in Kildare. In fact it has been said that in Kildare, hurleys are mainly used as instruments to keep down the thistles. A story about a Cork hurler attracts less local interest than say a story about a footballer, or a jockey.
The weigh rooms of Punchestown, Naas, The Curragh and other racecourses remain citadels of swashbuckling machismo.
A " coming out " from within the daredevil profession whom an ambulance follow around as they ply their trade would be the ultimate test of public attitude. A " coming out" of a National Hunt icon would surely strain the fragile liberalism of the midlands. As racing pages and pencils are dropped in a shocked silence around Kildare's betting shops the richter scale would perhaps just register a little tremor.
yours etc,
Des Groome,
Kilcumney house,
Kildare.
Come out, come out, wherever you are....

FW: letter to editor- Drink Driving Debate

Letter to Irish Times, Friday 23rd October
Comment-

Rural backbenchers under pressure- Legislation shouldnt have to be a popularity contest!
In fact, The Nationalist of Oct 28th printed this- thank you to the editor, Barbara.



Dear editor,
As opponents of Minister Dempsey's proposed new drink driving legislation once again pressurise their elected representatives there is a need to examine this emotive issue with new thinking. Prime Time's feature of Thursday 22nd October presented incontrovertible evidence that reduction of the drink driving limit to 50 mg from 80mg will reduce annual national road deaths by 10%. Indeed experts cited 18 road accident victims in 2008 in Ireland where the dead were found to have blood alcohol levels between 50 and 80mg. This refutes the argument that in many cases a couple of drinks will not impair driving.

Vested interest groups can not see beyond the defence of their right to allow drinkers to drive quietly home, to acknowledge the need to legislate for the common good. I recommend pinning responsibility for solving this issue squarely back onto those with the largest vested interest- the publicans and drinks industry. A simple solution of providing transport as part of the bar trade's basic customer service could be cheaply introduced and could quickly become the norm.

A publican could absorb a small minibus or people carrier into the business' cost base for less than 500 euro per month assuming a 24,000 euro lease over 5 years. This becomes a business asset both for its mobile branded advertising and for it's vital function of ferrying customers to the pub. A publican would then devise collection and drop-off routes and routines.
An 8pm to 9pm collection loop for OAPs on a wednesday with a homeward loop from 12 to 1, perhaps. Fridays and Saturdays would, it is hoped, become busy enough to require the enterprising publican to send the van out on several pick-up and drop-off runs.

The increase in visiting drinkers would more than compensate for the cost of this drinkers' shuttle service and driver's salary from the publican's viewpoint. The vital social benefits of publican provided drinkers' transport would be safer roads and the re-establishment of social contacts in both rural communities and among the less well off who currently deterred by taxi costs are drinking , perhaps to excess, at home.
yours etc,
Des Groome,
Chairman , Kildare Chamber of Commerce,
Kilcumney House,
Kildare,
groomepetvets.blogspot.com

FW: Letter to Editor.

---

From: groomevet@hotmail.com
To: independent.letters@independent.ie
Subject: Letter to Editor.
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:26:59 +0100
In fact, this was not printed by the paper. Badly written, poor commentary- or Myers doesnt air criticism ?

Dear editor,
K.Myers wrote in the Irish Independent of Friday 16/10/09 "I am grateful to a reader for the following from the Great Green Plan...which says all we need to know about this bossy bunch of scary lunatics"We will develop a template for the establishment of farm-gate shops and ensure that the necessary legislative arrangements are made to facilitate this".K. Myers is apparently critical of this Green party plan to foster farm-gate shops as he then writes a stream of consciousness in which Myers positions a farm-gate shop at the centre of an Enid Blyton children's story. I have a number of questions after reading his piece-Is Myers crediting Enid Blyton with the prescience to predict and endorse a growing self-help movement of the rural economy in the 21st century?Or is he simply writing to appeal to the one third of Ireland's population - those over the age of forty, of which I am one-who MAY have actually read Enid Blyton?

Myer's criticism of the farm-gate shop movement is wide of the mark and unhelpful to our economy's current weaknesses for the following reason; Ireland's is a small open economy in which the majority of what we consume is imported and the majority of what we produce is exported. This model of Foreign Direct Investment dependency was successful in contributing to the phenomenal growth of Ireland's GDP from 1993 to 2007. However the weakness of our dependency on global trading has been exposed during recession. In short, now we in Ireland lack sufficient indigenous means of production, across the entire commercial spectrum, to stimulate sufficient internal cash flow to power our own economy towards recovery. The farm-gate shop movement is one means of stimulating the local economy by generating cash flow for commercial farmers, small food-producing business, small shop-keepers and creates a virtuous circle of cash retention in the local economy. The current reality of farming for the factory and consuming the imported produce of foreign multi-national retailers is contributing to rural and small town unemployment and the shrinkage of our SME sector.

The farm shop movement is of growing economic importance in the UK where there is now a growing market for fresh food from known local sources. Here in county Kildare we have a number of thriving farm food outlets which the local consumer is responding to. The message is travelling across Ireland's SME sector. Countrywide, we now see shop local campaigns successfully spreading the message of spending local euros locally. There is a growing understanding that spending our euro in local producers and local small businesses benefits all of us. The SME sector is the engine of our economy. The self-help principle of the farm shop could be the starting point for recovery and for a new vision of the future shape and balance of Ireland's economy,

yours etc,
Des Groome,
Kildare Vet Surgery,
Chairman, Kildare Chamber of Commerce,
groomepetvets.blogspot.com

In defence of rural enterprise

Kevin Myers wrote a bizarre and ill-informed article in the Indo last Friday which was critical of the Green Party's fostering of farm shops. Local food shops are, in my view, a great commercial development empowering farmers and small local food producers to grab their own financial fates by the scruff of the neck and snatch their business fortunes back from the grasp of middle-men, factories and conglomerate foreign retailers. I reproduce my letter to the editor of the Indo in response to Myers;

Hip Replacements and the HSE

Irish Racing Ambassador and Kildareman Ted Walsh once famously summed up the hazards of National Hunt racing for horse and rider with the cryptic comment " Its not the years that do the damage, Its the mileage". Recently as a forty year old ex-amateur rider and ex-marathon runner I stared at an x-ray and heard the consultant describe " the obliterated joint space" on one hip and swallowed hard as he discussed prosthetic hip implant and major surgery as if casually prescribing a muscle rub and a few days stretching. But I wanted an end to over a year's nagging hip and back pain. I needed to resume an active lifestyle and restore mobility to fulfill the demands of my active profession. I researched hip replacement and hip prosthetics and sought the earliest possible date in the Blackrock Clinic with the Surgeon known to perform more hip surgeries than anyone else.

Our private family health insurance with Hibernian Aviva has been the most important two thousand euro we have spent every year for the past decade. We have two sons who were born with congenital heart defects. Our health insurance and ability to pay ensured we obtained immediate expert care. We have never been at the mercy of the HSEs waiting list and both boys have survived and thrived. My own experience of surgery, albeit as a Veterinary Surgeon, is that the margin for error is still high for orthopaedics, high caseload is the key to success, risks of infection are one in two hundred ( too high). Prognosis is also influenced by both attention to detail in hospital processes and post-operative nursing care and expertise. My health insurance gave me the option of an excellent private orthopaedic surgical facility with only a few weeks of a wait.

I mention this to make two points. Firstly I am an advocate for universal health care for Ireland. Every citizen has the right to the same care that I had to shop around for. But the internal costs of that excellence will be high and attempts to seek efficiencies in cost will always create inequality unless excellence becomes the only standard measured. The HSE have moved Cancer Services now to eight designated centres of excellence, with plans to discontinue cancer services in thirteen smaller hospitals. This is a recognition that multi-disciplinary management in centres of excellence acheives excellent prognosis. It is also a recognition that in the high mortality context of cancer excellence is the only standard we should measure. Secondly, I am self-employed and would rather work than not, my insurance card moved me up a queue into a private bed and will help me regain productivity and run my business again in the shortest time possible. A medical card holder in my position would wait six to nine months for a hip replacement and would be medically signed off work for all that time. Unemployable because of pain, this medical card holder costs the state in welfare payments and loss of productivity. Not to mention the administration costs of a two tier system whereby that person may have the same surgeon as myself, but is queued in a different list and assigned to a different hospital.

So it was that I went under epidural and had a Bermingham right hip prosthesis implanted. This is a metal on metal resurfacing technique of screwing in a new tightly fitting metal ball and socket. More of us will have this type of surgery as life expectancy for males rises by 8% to the year 2036. The post-op information describes the surgical aftermath" You will then be able to start walking first with a frame and soon with crutches". This breezy optimistic prediction proved to be spin of Alastair Campbell proportions as I lay stuck to the bed with pain for the first few days. I dragged my misshapen, swollen and lead-weighted right leg to the edge of the bed only by the use of the two-handed hospital trapeze swing made famous by "Jerry Maguire".But there were five hips done in Blackrock that day and the nursing staff knew exactly what pain scores were normal and when precisely to rescue the average Irishman from his own low pain threshold. Furthermore their helpful post-op brochure went on to say" Normal sexual activity can be started again at 6-8 weeks. Although the warning about avoiding extreme positions of the hip applies." But of course you can never believe everything these doctors tell you. Just how well do they make artificial hips anyway ? Even cars dont need a running-in phase these days.

From my own bitter experience I can agree with the findings of a 2008 UCC School of Nursing Survey. Published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Nursing, findings reported pain to be the predominant physical experience after hip replacement, pain was more intense than expected and importantly the absense of a pain nurse specialist contributed to inadequacies in post-op pain management. The survey found that in some centres patients pain was still poorly assessed and concluded that pain management remains a major challenge for orthopaedic nurses in Irish hospitals.

Our expectations of care are very high as we know the excellence that can be acheived in Irish hospitals. We shouldnt suffer in silence. My professional insight into the challenges of infection control, pain control, margin of error control ensured I went to a centre of excellence to have a hip replacement which even so was difficult, very painful and not without setback. I believe everyone to be entitled to that level of care. A margin of error is not acceptable; someone elses brother or grandmother shouldnt suffer as a percentage with infection, bed ulcer or pain just because they have a medical card or because whats not accepted in Blackrock is tolerated somewhere else. But we shouldnt expect that excellence to be available around every corner. We must recognise that excellent people are rare, that standards remain a challenge, remain dependent on people. If medical experts CAN guarantee standards in some locations then we must accept that other locations may have lower case load and consequent resources and expertise scarcity. Those who have fought the removal of some services from regional hospitals have carried placards " Death By Geography"and seek to preserve the availability of specialist service at their own regional hospitals. But they miss the vital point that on the whole list of factors that influence positive prognosis- the medical list- geography is absent. If we allow local concerns to determine where we provide specialist care to patients then we have to expect a margin of error.And then death by geography will become a reality.

Hybrid Vigour to improve the gene pool !

A big confident German Shepherd pulled its owner in the door of Kildare Vet Surgery yesterday. Tugging on his long lead this bushy muscular apparition ( the dog- not the owner) filled the reception area forcing two children and a terrapin onto a corner bench. While diplomatically making friends with this prospective patient I made more than the usual complementary remarks, namely that we dont see enough of the strong workmanlike, old-fashioned type of GSD any more. This character was big and broad, long-coated, a bold alpha dog, and the type you used to see on farms. Healthy enough to probably never need a Vet and strong enough to take a good kick from a bullock as all part of a days work. I grew up with a lovable GSD whose annual dip in the sheep tank was the closest to a preventative pet health plan we ever worried about in those days.

We are all too accustomed to seeing a smaller, thinner specimen of German Shepherd at Kildare Vet Surgery. A list of our frequent flyers at Kildare Vet would feature GSDs right at the top of the table. We dont give out air miles- but we do give good sympathetic discounts (!) and advise every new pedigree pup owner to take out insurance. The newer strain of GSD we see , certainly around this part of Ireland, suffer high incidence of a degenerative arthritis from a young age known as DOD which affects elbows, shoulders and hip joints. They develop irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, at the slightest divergence from recommended feeding habits. Then in older age if they have escaped these problems , will frequently present with Hip Dysplasia. I have a bit of that myself now- but my excuse is a youth spent falling off slow racehorses and a midlife crisis marathon running career. The sort of incidence of these problems I am recording greatly exceeds any expected average for any other dog sample group.

I am absolutely convinced that in-breeding of closely related dogs and bitches due to a relatively small breed population on a small island is the cause of this increasing incidence of congenital defects. The specimen of obvious rude health I began this piece with turned out to be out of an English GSD bitch and by a German dog. This owner had bought the pup, in fact, in Wales. The channel tunnel improved the movements of dog breeds. The Pet Passport scheme will also improve gene pools over time through mixing.

It is of course not just GSDs whose gene pool is now shown to be too small. I recently examined a shih tzu pup with a face only a mother could love. Its severely brachycephalic flattened nose rendered ths pup almost unable to breathe, while a markedly overshot jaw would over time affect eating habits and oral hygiene. This client was casually told that her new expensive pup was very " finely" bred, was related to show winners, and that mother and father were half-siblings. The mind boggles. I hope she took my advise, returned the pup and demanded her money back as that is obviously the only way to halt these breeding practices.

The principle of producing healthy hardy stock by out-crossing to new bloodlines is known as hybrid vigour. Nature invariably combines new gene pools to complement each other for survival by natural selection. This is why in every species opposites attract and stand out individuals score the chicks, fillies, birds as the case may be. Racehorse breeders who apply a science of sorts breed the best to the best- but know that better progeny result when the best stock out-cross.

If we go on safari a la Desmond Morris and reflect on the out-crossing of the Irish gene pool during the Celtic Garfield years of the last decade we will see that perhaps Ireland will soon benefit from a bit of hybrid vigour. In years to come I am sure many Polish, Latvian or Ukranian bred Offaly and Kildare Youngsters will take up the Caman. The Kerry defence may be shored up not by Paidi or Ciarans but by Radovan and Pietr. Ta an-athas orm an corann seo a glacadh as Prague agus Riga. We know many sons of the Laois and Leitrim soil who have brought home the lovely svelte and charming Katerina or the tanned and sultry Svetlana to meet mammy- grinning like the proverbial celtic cat that got the cream before sunday morning mass.

I have read notes from an eminent lecturer in the IMI again on the issues of Corporate Governance pertinent to the Irish Problem over the last decade. Internationally Ireland's corporate boards have been known as cronyistic, untrustworthy, typical of a very small village style financial sector. Investors and the markets have always been wary of Irish boards and relied on a heavy level of local knowledge in decision -making around investment. Difficulties historically are cited as an over-reliance on senior management judgements, lack of independent non-vested board members, lack of challenge at board level and a cavalier approach to regulations. These are symptomatic of parochial thinking, group-think consensual decision making, old-boy network appointees, all in a small country where events have precluded the need for tough ethical stances or lateral thinking until recent economic tsunamis have exposed the limitations of Irish public and corporate board governance.
Somewhere within the morass of FAS, our Banks , our public sector indecision, lies a salutary moral about the dangers of in-breeding and the urgent need for Hybrid Vigour!.

14 reasons to vote YES

1. Ireland now will keep our Commissioner thanks to our NO vote last time. A new position of EU Foreign Affairs representative will be created within the Commission. Irelands influential role within the Commission can continue.
2.The Council of Ministers will now meet in Public and not in Private as is now the case. This will lead to greater accountability and transparency in the Council. All states including Ireland will retain a veto in matters of Tax and Defence. All other issues will be decided by Majority vote allowing more progress and less stalemate.
3.The EU Council will now have an elected full time President for a two and a half year term. Henry Kissinger once publicly asked " When I want to speak to Europe who do I call?" A full time President will give the EU one face, one voice and increase the EU's global credibility and authority.
4. The European Parliament after Lisbon will have new powers to overrule some of the EU Council's decisions and will now also have joint control over the division of the EU budget.
5. Each states National Parliament will have 8 weeks to examine new EU legislation. If one third of countries object to a bill it can be sent back to the EU parliament.
6. A citizens initiative clause in Lisbon will allow one million signatures to bring a bill before the EU Parliament. This will be a new form of grass roots engagement in the EU process.
7. The Lisbon Treaty sets down permanently the rules and process for a country to enter the EU.These conditions include, stable government, good human rights record, and respect for minorities.
8. Lisbon treaty lays out the full powers the ECB has in Europe over monetary policy. This will strengthen the future of the euro and the authority of the ECB. In the Ireland of 2009 , if we still had the punt and no ECB you and I would need the proverbial wheelbarrow of worthless punts to buy a loaf of bread. In effect we would be the Zimbabwe of Western Europe.
9. Lisbon outlines opt-out clauses for Taxation directives and Defence directives. These opt out clauses will benefit other small countries as well as safeguarding Irelands neutrality and our investor-friendly (low-corporation tax) fiscal policy.
10. A European Culture and Heritage Clause in Lisbon recognizes the influence of Judaeo-Christian tradition on EU laws and procedures. With Western Europes growing Islamic migrant populations, this clause will give legal security against the push for Sharia Law in some mixed-culture states.
11. The fundamental Charter of human rights will become the EU charter under Lisbon. This Charter will underpin future EU laws. The Charter places protections on the vulnerable and elderly and will become a moral yardstick within EU justice.
12. The Solidarity Clause outlines the possible setting up of a European Defence Agency. This will it is hoped be a European peace -keeping force with teeth. An army of sorts with the power to intervene in a future Srebrenica and provide mutual member state military assistance. In this clause, our Neutrality allows us an opt-out.
13. The Enhanced Cooperation Clause of the Lisbon Treay discusses cooperation between states on the issues of Climate change and energy needs, amongst other areas of common interest. Environmental concerns are placed at the heart of the EU for the first time.
14. The Guarantees obtained by the Irish since Lisbon 1 are an example of nuanced and clever Irish foreign relations. The reaction abroad to another NO vote will be a shrug of the shoulders by both Eurocrats and our US multi-national tenants. The watching waiting world will not again take the time to revisit our concerns.

Lisbon treaty Summary

Discussions surrounding the pros and cons of the Lisbon treaty have failed thus far to view the Treaty as a whole or even as a sum of parts. Instead what we have read and heard has tended to be debate by interest groups concerned with aspects of the Treaty. Worse still Lobby groups have argued points that arent even in the Treaty ; from the minimum wage red-herring on the No side to the scaremongering of dire consequences on both sides. Here follows a synopsis of the Treaty's key clauses both to demystify the jargon and to debunk the fear-mongers.

The Treaty can be divided into two halves with the first half dealing with proposed changes to EU Governance, the way they do things, and the second half dealing with EU policy and activity changes. There are some six or seven fundamental changes in each half. The first half;

1. The Commission. A new position of EU Representative of foreign affairs will be created. The proposed drop from 27 Commissioners to 18 is now replaced by an assurance that each state keeps a Commissioner. Thanks due to the Irish for that welcome concession. The Commission's main role is to propose policy and law.

2. The Council of Ministers will meet in Public and not in private as they currently do. They will vote by Qualified Voting Majority and no longer by the system of unanimity / veto. The majority required will be a total weighted 55% majority. The Veto rule will continue for Defence and Taxation issues. The Council of Ministers make final decisions on Legislation, but now underLisbon will engage in greater consultation with the European Parliament.

3. The EU Council. This is the Council of the Heads of each Government. There will now be an elected President ( elected by the EU Council itself) for two and a half years which will be a full time position. The EU Council's role is to give " political direction" to the EU.

4. The European Parliament is given more powers under Lisbon. The Parliament will now have equal voting status on some legislation as the Council of Ministers.The Parliament will have new power to elect the Commission President. The Parliament has new increased powers to make legislative decisions in the areas of Asylum, Agriculture, Emigration and the EU Budget.

5. National Parliaments. Each country's own National Parliament has eight weeks to examine new legislation from the EU and if one third of countries object an EU bill can be sent back for review.

6. A Citizens initiative clause in Lisbon allows one million citizen signatories to bring forward a bill to the European Parliament for discussion in the Parliament .

7. The procedure and rules for countries gaining membership to the EU is outlined in a joining clause. Interestingly there is now also a process outlined for a country to leave the EU.

The second half of the Treaty outlining proposed changes to policy and activity deals with areas of competence ( the EUs powers in part or in full) and lists exclusive competences, joint member state and EU competences, and member state exclusive competences.

1. The Eu has exclusive competence ( full legislative power) in the internal market (free trade) and monetary policy in the eurozone ( the ECB).The Eu has exclusive competence in Customs law, Competition law and conservation in the seas.
The Eu has joint competence with each member state in social policy, environment, energy, transport and public health.
Member states have exclusive competence over human healthcare, culture, tourism, policing, sport,education,industry.

2. The Opt-out clause. Member states can opt out of EU taxation directives and do their own thing on tax or fiscal policy. EU Defence directives can be opted out of if they conflict with country policy-such as Irelands neutrality. Directives affecting common foreign and security interests must be unanimously accepted- in effect every country retains a right to veto on these issues.

3. The European culture and heritage clause. A paragraph outlines the influence that religion and history has on European law. In effect Judaeo-Christian traditions inform EU policy. Perhaps a safegaurd against Sharia law's claims for legitimacy in future Eastern accession states.

4. The fundamental charter of human rights is given equal legal status in the Treaty as the Treaty itself. It will be now known as the EU charter, will underpin future EU law and be a yardstick to test existing law. The charter gives specific protections to the young and the elderly.

5.The Solidarity clause. Member states are required to assist each other against terrorism, aggression, man-made disaster, natural disaster. This mutual assistance must not conflict with a country's NATO membership or a country's Neutrality. Each member state can decide to participate in a European Defence Agency- or not in our case as Neutrality is expressly protected. Conflict prevention and peace-keeping are mentioned. A formalised military grouping within the EU to lead defence policy and with the power to prevent a future Srebrenica.

6. Enhanced Cooperation clause. Nine or more EU states can now follow procedures of common policy if they agree to on any issue. This provides a means to work together on climate change and energy needs and is the first time the climate crisis is part of an EU treaty. This clause is said also to encourage improved policing with cross-border follow-up on human trafficking and drugs trade.
Dr Garret Fitzgerald stated in his Irish Times article recently that Irelands negotiation of Lisbon Two's Irish Guarantees is the latest example to be added to our record of considerable Irish successes in Foreign Policy.
Simply , the guarantees are; A. We will retain a Commissioner.
B. A Guarantee that we will continue to look after our own Tax.
C.The protections in our constitution on life, education, and the family have precedence over EU treaty or law.
D. Irelands position on Neutrality is safegaurded by a triple -lock system of Veto.
E. Workers rights and social issues are solemnly declared to be protected within Lisbon by the provisions of the EU charter.
On the day the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all states a new treaty will enforce the provisions of these guarantees. My view is that we should trust the Guarantees as plainly no other small country will ever trust the institutions of the EU if Irelands assurances are not delivered as promised.
There is much to fear in the Treaty in the use of phrases like Solidarity and European Defence Agency but also much to welcome in the EU charter and the conditions for future accession. Conditions such as stable rule of law, protection of human rights and minorities.
The European union is the most successful example of multi-lateralism in the history of the world. Such success requires compromise of the type larger states made to begin with when accepting the membership application of a wet and backward former colony on the outer edge of the Atlantic sea all those years ago.

YES... To keep our commissioner.

Ireland's electorate will vote to ratify or reject once more an unchanged Lisbon Treaty on October 2nd. The easiest choice will be taken by those who abstain. Voters against this treaty make a choice to risk alienating the monetary mandarins of the ECB and unnerving the international direct investment that our vulnerable and leaky economy depends on. Those who vote Yes choose to trust that a place at the european table secures an audience for Irish concerns and to trust in further immersion in a European experiment which emerged from the wreckage of two world wars. Last year when the Irish Voters faced this choice about the nature of our future relationship with Europe the majority asserted a right to say No, a right to better assurances, a right to understand what this Treaty will mean and will change.
So it is then that we vote on an unchanged Treaty, but one now with assurances attached. Perhaps the most important of which for a small nation with a lowly weighted voting right, will be the right to retain a Commissioner. In this issue alone the NO lobby , like Othello, have done this state some service. David Cochrane, journalist, on Politics.ie has pointed out that this alone suggests a single salient sound bite that the Yes side can win on; YES- to keep our commissioner.
It is overwhelmingly important for anyone in business, anyone with a stake in the free market, whether an employee or a shareholder to understand that ratifying Lisbon is integral to economic recovery by its strengthening of the status of the ECB and the unity of the eurozone's import-export channels. To those fearful of the free market's big business agenda I can give reassurance that the counter-balance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, now to be the EU Charter will now have full Legal status in EU Law without affecting any articles in the Irish Constitution. This charter for the first time makes legal the civil, political, economic and social rights recognised by the EU. In fact this EU Charter, if Lisbon be ratified, should make managers, HR departments and judiciary alike more wary of due process- and probably will provide the Trade Union movement with a renewed relevance.

Ultra-Marathon Man leaves his mark

When I drifted away from race-riding eight or nine years ago after having too many falls, riding too many slow horses and eating too few good dinners over the previous ten years ( !)there was a void in my life for a while. I needed a competitive outlet and a routine of self-challenge and outdoor exercise. I began to run. First a few miles at a time, then seven or eight miles a few times a week. Given the mind and body of the man in question it wasnt long before I turned to Marathon running. Thus began the first of many journeys. Most of those journeys ended with a medal, a sense of self reaffirmed, an extra lesson learned, and ended at the finish line of another 26 mile run in a city or on a mountain somewhere. There is a spirituality in the mindset of the self-improvement, the self-discipline that becomes part of the runners' world. Like the separateness that becomes part of the life of the committed cyclist or jockey. It was an odd type of separateness for a gregarious open communicator like myself, but it was part of a routine of challenge and endeavour that had been part of my life since I first sat on a horse. And I suppose I am no more or less of a contradiction of a man than anyone.
I read a book several years ago that inspired me and led me to deliver several motivational speeches about the power of goal setting. The story of Dean Karnazes, possibly the greatest endurance runner since Pheidippides. A man more than ordinary who inspires in ways that the untouchable great athletes fail to inspire a mere mortal athlete of flat feet as I indeed was; Dean inspires because as an ordinary advertising executive at the age of 30, he turned his face to finding what he looked for in life, and did so as a family man and fundraiser, with the focus, but without the selfishness that typifies many great acheivers.
Dean's creed;
Run when you can
Walk if you have to
Crawl if you must
Just never give up
I will post my speech about the power of goalsetting some time. I will also post the tale of the journey to the finish line in the Dublin Marathon 2003, my first full marathon finish.
For today though the story is of a bionic hip. The runs and falls have taken their toll; I have to have surgery to remodel my right hip joint in a few weeks. The next marathon I finish will be at a walk! Somebody famous said" Its not the years, its the mileage..." A phrase definitely applicable to me in my current broken down lame state.
But ask me was it worth it?
Every step of the way!

Rip off Ireland.... not RIP just yet.

At Groome PetVets I have reduced the price of many of our key services in the last ten months.
I began with a pre-Christmas offer of a free microchip with every booster.
In February I looked at our price list critically and reduced the price of six key services by one third. In July I addressed the fall off in week-day customer numbers by introducing a deal of one third off everything -for OAPs- on tuesday and wednesday. In August I have begun a campaign to reverse the decline in preventative pet health care ( for example Vaccination numbers are well down) by introducing a Loyalty card for booster vaccination and puppy primary vaccination and a clubcard for Propak pet food.
The unfortunate fact though is that the only reason I can afford to make these price changes is because my pay roll costs have halved by my reduction in staff numbers from 15 , just a year ago, to only 8 working in the practice now. Those now working at Groome PetVets provide a better sevice to our clients in many ways and do so more efficiently and cost effectively. That I can now identify those improvements is symptomatic of the difficulties the entire economy created for itself by the high cost-spiral which we all contributed to and accepted- then passed on to customers. That I was able to radically shift business strategy and realign staff to new behaviours and a new business culture is a reflection of the flexibility that small private sector business can take advantage of when there is a will and need for change.
However I am only in control of parts of my own cost base and most of my costs of doing business have not reduced and some have even increased. Animal remedies and medicines comprise about thirty percent of my costs. The major medical wholesalers and manufacturers increased prices by between 4 and 8 percent in September/October '08 and have not reduced prices since. The markets two main specialist pet foods increased prices in October 08 and april 09 respectively and needless to say did not reduce prices as the economy further shrank into deflation this summer. Energy and communications costs are often cited as having fallen this year. In practice however I have found that the newer entrants to these markets tout for business with lower base charges but running charges will amount to about the same month by month- and I have tested this by moving my service around. Despite the ongoing lowerECB base interest rates, Bank overdraft rates and business charges remain punitive within the big two in the Irish bank market. Commercial rates have not reduced as budget-stressed local authorities seek revenue from the limited sources available. Many small businesses are simply unwilling to pay rates this year and will remain in arrears of rates, I predict into next year and the year after, as the rates bill joins a pile under a paper weight on the owner-manager's desk. My PRSI contributions have not reduced, neither has the rate of VAT I am required to pay and then pass on to my customers. Rents have reduced as the smaller commercial property owners have become increasingly anxious to keep their tenants- though unfortunately many retailers and other small business tenants are now falling behind in their rents, while in many sectors the concept of upward only rate review remains the norm. Rising waste disposal costs, implimentation of parking charges even in small towns, consistently high motor fuel costs, road toll costs and so on- these all form parts of the cost base of the Irish small business and can broadly be blamed on either the pressures of the macro-economy OR the pressures of government costs- boh of which are being brought to bear on the SME sector as externalities beyond our/my control.
In the macro- economy world business forces are governed by multinationals with revenues often in excess of a small country's GDP- these forces now must extract the penalty for share-holder driven growth strategy from wherever they can. In the case of our budget obsessed Irish government; government and public sector costs- driven up by years of appeasing unions amidst complacency about ongoing revenue- will be brought down by Bord Snip implimentations , but will be brought down slowly In the mean time small business have been targeted to foot the bill.
Recent media reports about the demise of "rip-off Ireland" may be greatly exaggerated. I believe balance within our economy cant be acheived until Banks, Government, Government employees, Trade Unions and Share-holder driven Big Business bring their own cost base and ransom-like tariffs into line with the new economic reality that small businesses envisage.
There is an appetite for change of the political landscape in Ireland and some debate on the need for a new radicalism in political thinking. I believe that radicalism needs to come from the centrist mindset of middle society. Those who believe in neo-liberalism but wont stand for free market control by the big business economics of the Thatcher, Reagan, Karl Rove/Bush tradition any longer. This is very much radicalism with a small r. I believe we must be very careful not to allow the debate for change to be ambushed by Left , or right, ideological forces who if allowed grow to become relevant could polarise the electoral process, create dysfunctional and paralysed coalition government and alienate much needed foreign investors. In the face of the body politic's poor handling of public relations, seeming imperviousness to the plight of indigenous small business, tardy decision making and those continued embarrassing revelations about expenses and God knows what else opportunists on the socialist fringe in particular now have the climate to thrive. But I believe as a small business owner and employer that their agenda for self-interest would prove as damaging as those big business forces now hoist by their own petard, though still looking for the rest of us to pay!

Des Groome.

Co-operative marketing; Helping those who help themselves.

Kildare Chamber of Commerce voucher book is a resounding local success. Participating Local businesses report increased footfall. Local consumers are enthusiastic about the novel offers available and the value they can now find for everything from Pizzas to PC Doctor to Pet Health.
Households can use up their voucher book over the coming months and develop the all important habit of visiting our vibrant service provider and small enterprise based town centre.
Kildare Chamber of Commerce will launch a new book in the autumn to create a pre-Christmas shopping lead-up in Kildare town and to help our members help customers by giving real LOCAL value for money.
The Co-op movement sustained a generation in rural Ireland in the past. Co-ops helped farmers sell their produce, helped creameries acheive the volume needed to compete with imported produce, gave a retail outlet to rural households.
Kildare Chamber of Commerces voucher scheme is not original , but it does represent a new form of Co-op movement. Co-operative marketing.
The next level of Co-operative marketing has also now arrived to Kildare. A group trading as www.iBuyVouchers.com has the potential to help further business growth and promote customer loyalty.
Signing your business up will place your discount offer on a database for anyone to print or download and avail of -as an incentive to become a customer or a visitor to your town. Credit card style loyalty cards will be sold for three euro in each ibuy participating business. The same card sold in each member business can be used in any other business listed with the ibuy network to avail of their special iBuy member only offer.
An iBuy card holder going on holiday to Galway could look up restaurants linked to the scheme and perhaps eat every night at a special offer price while on holidays.
An iBuy card holder visiting Kildare village or the National Stud could buy a new suit on Kildare 's market square, availing of an iBuy member card offer- and enjoy iBuy card holder benefits in one of Kildares feted hostelries before heading home after a successful day trip.
As Kildare Chamber Chairman I am encouraging all our business members to join this co-operative marketing network AND I encourage consumers and householders to pick up their iBuy 3euro Loyalty card today.
Schemes like this can harness the potential of the small local business sector to help each other.
This is the type of Grass-Roots empowerment that helped Ireland conquer economic, social and political deprivation many times before in our past and can equally see us through the trials of today.

Des Groome

Those who will rebuild.

I gravitated towards an interesting looking character at a business function in Portlaoise recently. He was about my own age and wearing a good suit and tie in the manner of a man who does a days work for a living. I joked that we had the same tailor. He replied that it looked like we also shared a barber. Common ground quickly established, economics and politics- locally- we then explored at length. Fianna Fail were hammered in Portlaoise in the Locals; the state of the local small business sector is dire; Cowen was at an opening in the town recently and spoke well, impressed many and left a feeling of optimism in his wake- what the hell is going on up in hq Fianna Fail?- Why isnt he visible, involved, spreading that feeling nationally?. I have debated these and similiar questions, over a pint or at work or at cumann meeting, many times recently.
Guards and prison officers, civil servants and teachers, these are the voters who punished the local Fianna Fail councillors in Portlaoise, Newbridge, Naas, Athy, Tullamore and of course Dublin itself. The backbone of the country and the frontline workers of our social and public sector who must now take a cut to help correct the foolish inflationary spiral driven forward by a Public Private Partnership of one dimensional trade unionists and Politicians who learnt their economics on the election canvas in Clara and Clonliffe Road. The PPP with its annual increments served Begg, OConnor et al and which now can be shown to have done its beneficiaries a disservice.
My Portlaoise small businessman had a workforce of twenty in a small engineering works which served the building trade and grew to a fleet of 5 jeeps, with often several on-site projects, and two units in a business park noisy and busy for the last eight years. The owner himself, then managing and supervising relished an expanding universe and the opportunity afforded by the climate of the time. He told me with a smile that he is now back on the machines and enjoying it again. The forty year old midriff spread will soon be shed as all bar one jeep are handed back and the office chair wont be warmed as much in future. He was stung badly by a few builders and had to let most of the lads go, as the bank took his overdraft and put it on term loan. He wont let out as much credit in future and wont take on big staff numbers again unless the serious contracts reappear.
Morale is a vague concept. Some people need it to be given to them by some equally vague concept of leadership. Morale can be high or it can be poor. The National morale is now said to be Low. Myles Na gopaleen could have some fun now with his encyclopedia of cliches- The man whose morale was Low; The Man who said we needed Leadership.
What you dont hear now though is the real truth which is that ordinary people, not Leaders, not Obamas, just workers, make their own morale. The story you need to hear now is the story of the man who took off the suit and went back on the machines, or who left the office and got back on a digger or who went from the big auctioneering firm to the dole queue to learning to write software to designing websites.
Media can say what they like about leadership until it becomes a cliche in itself. In the upper corporate world, high performing companies are often said to have a culture of self- leadership.
The generations of Irish who escaped the dreary wet deprivations of their youth and emigrated to build better lives and contribute to other societies knew self- leadership. But they would have just called it survival.
A hero of my youth, an icon of eighties Ireland, Barry McGuigan is now bizarrely choreographing a reality boxing show. Ten middle class symbols of the Ahern era including actors, Tg 4 stars, a builder, A former GAA star, a comedian, are putting aside their comfortable success after an easy expansionist Ahern decade to be trained to leanness and to fight in a ring under McGuigans mentoring. McGuigan had an innocence. The innocence of the kid who took no credit for his own greatness was typical of the Ireland before Riverdance, of the Irish who had to take their own chances with a boat or a plane, and bears no resemblance to the urbane cosmopolitan, confident irish sportsman of today who Expects.
I think this incongruous mix of nostagia and grit is no accidental metaphor. I believe the generation now reeling a little and now holding the private sector together with their fingernails were reared lean and learnt to work hard. They took all the advantages of tax breaks and a perfect expansionist economic climate to create the Celtic Tiger, a cliche to burn now on a ceremonial bonfire of the celtic Vanities. I believe that now this generation, now barely forty perhaps have the best working years of their careers still ahead of them. This generation of men like me- and the ten gobshites on TV who McGuigan is going to train- to whom Barry McGuigan was a representative icon of Irish fighting spirit in the face of social, political and economic adversity in the late eighties. A generation who will make their own morale and provide their own leadership are once again fit and ready to start at their beginnings. Ready to rebuild.

Eye of the Tiger!


Des Groome

Stand and be counted- YOUR EURO COUNTS

The flow of money into and around- and out of- the Irish economy for the last decade can be likened to the flow of liquid life aid from an out of control hydrant on a hot day. An abundance of cash overflowing, much of it wastefully, on streets awash with foreign credit. Abruptly the tap has been turned off now for about 12 months. The private sector exists on a slow drip.
The public sector, government included, have been slow to feel the drought.Perhaps they have been able to keep their own sprinklers switched on and exist in a pampered mindset, oblivious to the lack of cash flow in the new economic reality the rest of us have to do business in.
I have launched a voucher campaign to promote local shopping in Kildare town as part of my chairmanship of the chamber of commerce. It is a two sided argument; The retailer and small business is encouraged to give REAL value to consumers_ rip off Ireland is dead and gone!-
and the consumer/household shopper is asked to remember that SMEs CAN compete with big outlets in many ways , and remember that small towns need small business at their vibrant centres, small businesses that we all have a duty to support.


Groome PETVETS answer to this movement has been to reduce prices of many key services to 2005 prices- a bitch spay now reduced to 120 euro. Consult fee now down to 38 euro.
Old Age Pensioners are the back bone of our nation.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays we give ONE THIRD off all Vet services to OAPs.

Community values, local solidarity, value for money, self-help.
These are the principles on which we can rebuild our country.
The so-called boom should have been switched off and some costs controlled for the cash drought we now have . There is a feeling of loss and of waste.
The loss of prosperity will be only temporary.
Lets see what values we can refind on the journey forward again.


Des Groome.

"Beginning to Engage"- The complacency of the mediocre.

My family have had a long dark fortnight. We knew it was coming and the outcome thank God has been a good one but an emotional numbness remains. Now that James is home from Crumlin we can sleep in our own beds, pay attention to our other children, nurse him in the comfort of our own home and gain relief from knowing that his surgery has been a succcess, a hurdle has been crossed, the spectre of fear of tragedy has passed. But it is hard to write about, and speak about, and the experience is still chest-tightening to think about, and doesnt yet feel much like relief. When JK Rowling conceived the spectre of the Dementors in her Harry Potter Saga she could have drawn on the living grief and the empty fear of parents of desperately -ill children. Parents who have no power but to hope, who are often too angry to pray. To parent a child through pain you cant control or through awful invasive heart surgery in which you must have faith is to be touched by a Dementor, to inhale the stress, to be drained flat and cold. You inhale all that into your chest and then take another deep breath to find the strength to be a parent, to make your child trust, believe and heal.
Just after James surgery when he was still in intensive care I answered an invitation from Kildare Souths conscientious TD Sean OFearghail to attend his committees grilling of Professor Drumm of the HSE. The timing was bad but I went to try to get a flavour of this man presiding over the vast and inert human pyramid we call a health service. The committee itself had called this man to make sense of why, without any political compunction, Crumlin hospital had cut back essential services, closed operating theatres, and launched a war of words with Drumm at the first hint of coercion to reduce costs. The background story we have all heard is of a 9m euro deficit which the HSE has forced Crumlin to live with in 2009. The real story however, according to Drumm, is that Crumlin over-spent by 9m in 2008 and have simply been told by the HSE not to do so in 2009 as this year "we wont have the 9million to give you". Now even to me as a parent that sounded reasonable if indeed the money wasnt all wisely spent or if good efficiencies could be found without care being compromised. OFearghail himself put it succinctly and fairly " We are asking the hospital managers to manage this hospital and find efficiencies without sacrificing front line services". OFearghail is one of the good guys. I am in agreement with him in putting it up to managers to fulfill their job descriptions and manage costs- including their own cost.
Drumm made three good points that the entire panel of cross party TDs found agreement with; He wanted Crumlin to pool their blood costs and needs with St James'; He wanted them to raise an extra 12million a year by billing their private patients more accurately; He wanted them to cut their payroll by 3% as they pay the highest rate and proportion of over-time of any hospital.
These three requests the board of Crumlin have failed to do but have cynically reacted in a war of PR with the HSE by closing a theatre and wards. On these three simple cost efficiencies Drumm is right and the board of Crumlin plainly are remiss in a city full of hospitals and full of wateful duplication of service in some areas ( for example we have 3 childrens A and E in one city ) and only 80% use of beds in some parts of Crumlin while children from Temple street hospital wait often in over-crowded adult wards.
But there are disturbing mediocrities emerging about Drumms role also; Questioned at length by OFearghail and his committee about who calls the shots-or are the HSE just observers ?.. Drumm procrastinated, prevaricated, " Crumlin havent agreed how to cut the costs" ..." I have asked Crumlin for full support for a Cross-clinic approach"..." Paediatrics needs a leader as oncology has made great strides with its new clinical leader"... On more than one occasion in the debate Drumm acknowledged difficulties in getting the hospital board to his view point but used the phrase" we are beginning to engage". How many years into Drumms job has it taken him to get the hospital boards to begin to engage...
TDs challenged Drumm about a credibility gap between what Crumlin had told O Fearghail,s committee and what Drumm was saying. He did acknowledge this credibility gap and explained the difficulties in terms that would be clear to students of organisational behaviour in any business school; Drumms hands are tied by human resource management issues, by resistance to change, by his failure to acheive involvement in his vision for the future of health care.
The answers to me are not crystal clear or neatly aligned into a strategic change management ladder towards a wonderful dynamic future for our HSE. But there are some things clear to me- Drumm is a poor communicator and lacks the courage to execute real change.
His vision - and it is also Harneys vision- is the wrong one, as why otherwise would opposition to it be so intense and widespread. His exasperation with the unions, the work practices of hospitals, his veiled criticism of boards he is only now beginning to engage with; these are the flaws of a man who is not a leader or a lateral thinker, who should be still treating patients- not trying to focus a big picture which to him plainly still remains a jigsaw in pieces.
To put one final fact to the philosophy, to put this in context. Crumlins wage bill is 74 % of its entire budget. I dont know of one business sector that could be viable with that cost ratio for labour. Childrens health care doesnt need to be compromised. Does this issue like so many others arrive back at the need for unions, for people, to be realistic about how money should be spent and what the rest of us are able to pay for.

All Gods Creatures got a place in the Choir..

Irelands media reverberate now in july 2009 with a cacophony of political dissent. Some criticisms against our political decision-makers are justified and are constructive. The rising cries to reduce salaries of high ranking civil servants, to tax the judiciary in line with the citizenry, to reform the public sector- these voices must be heard and change must sooner happen. Dissonant notes of self-interest from unions, from banking groups, from the construction sector-those voices must be faced down in the long term interest of an equitable society. Fianna Fails leadership must face these groups and face the decisions which have to be made if necessary against groups who have even donated heavily to these same politicians. Perhaps therein lies the difficulty, but if Cowens government can deconstruct the legacy of Bertie Aherns misguided, if well meaning, social partnership annual giveaways and the contradictory Reagonomic tax regime, then this government could move Fianna Fail back to its ideological base as a centrist party of the " Plain people of Ireland". I say this as a committed member of Fianna Fail and acknowledge that the plain people of Ireland are now a sophisticated and discerning society who should be addressed as such. I also however ask this same society to acknowledge that these past Fianna Fail governments main sins were of creating a wastage culture and of giving too much. A wastage culture therefore that we all must partake in amending.

Most of our media commentators flaunt an agenda of blame. While the three horsemen of the apocolypse- MacWilliams, Hobbs and Lee- persist with an easy to be wise after the event refrain of "I told you so".
Yesterdays Irish Times ran a heart warming story of political inclusiveness. Against the dissonant choir of the day this was a simple tale of enhanced engagement in the political process. A recently elected Fine Gael Councillor from Bagenalstown had a series of clashes in public with a political rival. Councillor Bambrick has reason to agree that politics may indeed be a dog eat dog business. His political jousts with one Larry Byrne were however a horse of a different colour involving a dog of decidedly Blue Shirt allegiance. Byrne was cited in court for disturbance of Cllr Bambrick by loudly ordering his dog not to approach, but " to come away from that or you will be contaminated" . In his defence Byrne stated that he had merely warned his dog to avoid the greasy poo on the grass. I am reminded of Disraelis famous entreaty to avoid the greasy pole of politics- sage advice to man or beast.
Judge Harnett of Bagenalstown district court entered into the spirit of multi-species political inclusiveness towards the cause of mammalian suffrage by declaring that he was sure this canine was " undoubtedly a Fine Gael dog". Equally magnanimously both judge and Gardai agreed "it wouldnt be necessary to call the hound as a witness".
By way of setting legal precedent Judge Harnett ruled that second hand ( or second paw) commentary through the intermediary of a canine could not legally be construed as insult to any third party.
Presumably Byrne and Bambrick were given paws for thought as they left the court with Bambrick bound - or was it boned- to the peace for a year.

OAP Tuesday - and WEDNESDAY!

My father lived life to the full, lived it at a pace few would keep up with and lived a life less ordinary. But he was a man of his time and those who grew up in fifties Ireland and worked through seventies and eighties Ireland did see it all. He would have valuable advise for young families and business people in an Ireland that has changed a lot but is now affected by economic and international forces that we have been through before.
Dad emigrated to England as a young dentist and came back with my mother and a young family to Carbury in north Kildare to farm and set up his practice. His passion for horses led him to race ride until he was 45 years old. He rode at the Cheltenham festival on a mare he broke, owned and trained at the age of 43. My sisters and I had a rural childhood of freedom, fresh air, hard work, surrounded by cattle, dogs and ponies. My father began his day on the farm, then donned a suit and put in 8 hours in his dental surgery in Edenderry, then fed cattle and horses and walked his fields until dark, usually with me, the boy, by his side.
The advices that resonate every day, of hard work, of fair play, honesty, independence, have stood me in good stead. We took risks and chances, both he and I, in business and in life - with crazy horses on the racetrack and optimistic enterprises to remind ourselves that every failed plan or tumble at the last is just another lesson learnt. The voice that goes on in my head in every day dealings, to walk away, to hold counsel, to keep the cheque book closed or to speak out and support what feels right- that voice is his.
I remember two pieces of advice about business. The first was never to trust a Bank or let them control your affairs. The second was never to owe what you cant easily pay back.
I would say its a bit late to be giving some people those pieces of advice. The next thing he'd say would be - dont let the banks bully you when you are in trouble!- paay them back a bit and dont panic them by telling them too much!
I mention these sayings of his in tongue in cheek fashion as the reality of todays business climate for the SME sector is grim- as grim as the late seventies perhaps. My chairmanship of Kildare Chamber of Commerce has put me in touch with businesses staying open only by will power.
But will power is a much under estimated asset.
If Dad was around he would be just 66. He passed away on a sunny morning up on the Curragh on horse back on the gallops. I cant picture him as an OAP. But I do know that people like him lived with 50 % income tax and 17 % interest rates and worked through that to educate the generation here now and build the nation we have, such as it is, warts and all.

Groome Pet Vets now give OAPs one third off all Vet services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
If you are an OAP- you know thats the least you deserve!

Des Groome.

Canine casualties of the property bubble...

We have a client in one of our clinics who shall remain unnamed in todays monologue. A big brash builders foreman who earned his first weeks wage under the benevolent conciliatory largesse of Ahern and who has now joined his first dole queue during the chilly and pragmatic stewardship of Cowen. In keeping with the time He collected four or five beautiful big pedigree dogs, rottweillars mostly. For good measure when the new house was built and fenced off he added three or four ponies until the healthy growing menagerie began to create healthy growing Vets bills. Wisely, an insurance policy was taken out for each dog so that the monthly premium to Allianz replaced the unexpected.
Pet Plan are a subsidiary of allianz Insurance Company who have the Pet Insurance market more or less to themselves. It is a problematic business. Insuring horses is a minefield as Irelands army of canny horse dealers would out smart and bankrupt any insurance company. Insuring pets is also not without risks as pur bred blue blood canines have their breed specific congenital defects which can be troublesome and expensive to treat. In fact some of these defects can be so wide spread ,such as hip dysplasia in the German Shepherd and Entropion in the Sharpei, that insurers request extensive examinations before accepting a dog or will simply insist on an exclusion clause in the policy for certain defects or conditions.
Our hero's first few years as a pet owner were uneventful as his pride of rottweillars grew as healthily as his bank balance. The new house was sold for one of those improbable sums of the halcyon peak era and a newer and bigger one with more room for dogs and ponies built next door. We didnt see our hero very often in the clinic but I made the occasional house call to the ponies and would often note that the wad I was paid from was matched only by the size of the newest tattoo on the arm.
Until last week, when he reappeared with a rottweilar I hadnt seen in a few years which now had a severe hind limb lameness. We admitted Jake, a 4 year old 52 kg male rotti, for sedation, examination and x-rays. A diagnosis of rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the stifle was made after the " draw test"- a type of manipulation of the stifle joint and a tell tale sign for cruciate injury.
Repair of this condition is by a surgical repair using a prolene ( a form of nylon) replacement for the torn ligament. The tricky procedure is then followed by lengthy rest, physio and then controlled exercise to test the new ligament. Surgery in a dog like Jake would be a three hour affair involving two Vets, two Nurses, numerous X-rays. Jake would stay with us for perhaps three days and need the best antibiotics available to us for up to ten days afterwards.
We gave a quote for Jakes total Veterinary work as an estimate of 750-950 euro; The final figure would depend on soreness/swelling post-surgery etc.
The owners bellow of anguish seemed out of character and a far cry from his ebullient old self.
I reassured him that Jakes insurance would probably cover this and went to make a call to Allianz only to be told that our hero had let the insurance lapse as the bills had only ever been in the region of 60 to 100 euro before and it had seemed a waste to be paying out for insurance...


Des Groome.

Web of inclusion - or circus of confusion.

Sally Helgesen ,a US writer, in her book "The web of inclusion" described how a revolutionary way to organise work in the famous Beth Israel New York Hospital created a new philosophy of patient care and became a world wide movement. Breathtakingly simple, the new system assigned a single senior nurse, known as the primary carer, to each patient. This nurse would manage that patients hospital stay by forming a care team made up of everyone from housekeeping to Laundry, junior Doctor and Senior Consultant. The care team consult as one on the patients therapy or surgery with each part of the hospital chain connected together. Helgesen likened the system to a spiders web where the beauty of the whole structure depends on the links between each part. The benefits of Primary Care Nursing as this is now known are many; Trainees learn by involvement, Domestic staff develop pride in their work, The Primary Care Nurse bonds with the patient- and Consultants practice humility because, uniquely, they have to consult. The patient is treated as customer, guest, client and centre of attention. The model has been adopted by commercially focussed hospitals and those with a patient-centred ethos the world over.
Earlier this week I attended Blanchardstown Hospital to have an arthritic joint (a recent running injury to my right foot) injected. My appointment was for 7.30 am. I presented myself on time, filled in a number of forms and handed over my health insurance card to the consultants secretary. Some eight to ten others assembled simultaneously, likewise answering a 7.30 appointment, without any particular order to proceedings. I was called into a day ward after only a few minutes, given a cubicle and the usual flimsy backless gown, and told to undress and put this on. I mentioned that my big toe would be the consultants only focus today, hence there was hardly any need to undress, but was told by the senior nurse " It doesnt matter, its procedure". I was then asked to put my shoes back on and go to X-ray. I pointed out that my boots were painful to put on and take off and in any case the foot itself was the point of X-ray. The answer to this was " sorry, health and safety".
After the X-ray was taken I returned to this day ward clutching the film of my painful big toe. I had not by this stage seen my consultant or been given any indicator of when I would get my injection -a ten minute simple procedure in itself- so I mentioned to the nurse who appeared to be " in charge" that I had an equally important 12 o clock appointment with another consultant in St James hospital. A rare abundance of medical attention for me I can assure you, but an appointment I had waited for and would have to wait two months for again. I was reassured that I would be out by 11 and settled down to wait for the big toe man to call me.
Some two and a half hours later, at half past ten, this nurse reappeared apologetically to say I would have about another half hour wait and might need to cancel my other appointment. I considered my options for a few minutes and then reluctantly rang James' to explain my predicament. A very understanding receptionist promised to reschedule me, albeit to some time next month. Again I settled down to wait.
At five past twelve I rang my own receptionist to make other plans. My own efficient lady rang me back to say an orthopedic man in Clane would see me at half twelve next day. So I got dressed. At the ward desk I asked for my X-ray back and stated I couldnt wait any longer.
To the senior nurse who appeared gob-smacked I said " I am afraid this is probably one of the reasons why the public have lost faith in the HSE". A Student Nurse from meath whose dad was a farmer had chatted to me earlier about Aberdeen Angus cattle and Meath GAA while she brought me down to x-ray.I thanked her and said " Niamh, this is called voting with your feet- Some day I may be so sick that I have no choice but to put up with this ; but today I have a choice so I am not going to be treated like this and then pay out my own good money to the man".
As I limped out onto the corridor I got a surprise as the embarrassed consultant himself came out of a theatre door after me. He apologised for the delay with a defence that he had got bogged down in a surgery and hadnt been drinking tea in there.. I said, look, there is no argument, you are busy but so am I - I was here at 7.30 for a small procedure, it is not acceptable to have to wait five hours without warning, you cant treat people like that any more.
He was also told how disorganised the place was and how disrespectful it is to herd in your whole day list at 7.30 am with no order or communication- and in an off-hand manner to force me to miss another important medical appointment for no good reason.
He did apologise again profusely but in reality the loss of a private patient was likely the only thing to exercise him to rush into the corridor after me.
When Kildare Vet Surgery was built in 2004 it was built at cost to one person-me- to provide a service to animal owners, to work to a high standard, to become a local asset and social benefit, to raise the level of animal care in Kildare to a new level- and to be a commercial success.
We work to a mission statement - Aiming to provide excellence in Veterinary when you need it near you.
This mission statement is client-centred. Our success and survival depends on attention to customers. Excellence in Veterinary is something we strive for as we deliver the services the market demands.
If a client or their pet are unhappy with us in any way we can and must be told - and if we are not responsive to customers needs or wants then we dont have the right to that customers business.
Questions arise from that trip to Blanchardstown- Did the Nurses even bother to tell the consultant I needed to be out by 11? Did they place any value on my time and the wasting of my time? Did that consultant ever have to bother before about disrespecting a private patient or any patient?
Plainly they have a culture/ethos/policy of not treating patients like customers.
In fact they barely treat their patients as adult human beings as far as I could see.
If the HSE in Ireland or even just Blanchardstown Hospital were to adopt a client-centred policy, as Vets like myself who have to make a living adopt client-centred aims, it would have to be called patient-centred and would use many of the strategies of the Primary Care Nursing movement.
For this to happen, many more paying customers like myself will have to vote with their feet, will have to get up and walk out and will have to calmly face to face with these senior Nurses and Consultants say- I will not be treated like this and disrespected by you and your flawed system and your archaic hierarchy.

Des Groome