The booklet is also available on the internet, on CD, in large print, in braille. The website also has Chinese, Russian, and Polish translations.

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The Irish Times summarised the 40 page English section thus:

• Nuclear incidents: Go in, stay in, tune in [to radio or TV]
• Flu pandemic: Buy enough food to last at least a week…Make sure you have a thermometer and supply of paracetamol or ibuprofen.
• Flooding: Don’t try to walk or drive through floodwater
• Hazardous chemical spills: Stay away from the scene
• Fire: Before opening a door, feel it with the back of your hand. If it is hot do not open it, as there may be a fire on the other side.

I’m surprised there was no mention of how to deal with the current emergency in our hospitals. It’s yesterday’s news so the politicians probably don’t care about it anymore but the report on Tania McCabe’s death in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda made for grim reading. Mrs McCabe was pregnant with twins but she, and one of her babies, died because of a misdiagnosis.

The latest report found “maternity, paediatric and anaesthetic services are significantly under-resourced to cope with the current demands and that this had an impact on how Tania McCabe was cared for“. Concerns had been raised previously by the hospital’s medical board, An Borad Altranais, and in a report by Judge Maureen Clark. Concerns were also raised by the chairman of a taskforce set up to oversee the delivery of better maternity services in the northeast. Last month, a consultant at the hospital offered to give up part of his salary so more nurses could be employed.

Eithne Donnellan, the Irish Times reporter, finished her story by concluding:

It now remains to be seen if the tragic death of this young woman, leaving behind a grieving husband and two young children, will finally stir the HSE into action.

But with tight controls recently imposed on recruitment in the HSE in order to cut costs, one couldn’t have too much confidence in progress being made by it on these pressing issues anytime soon.

Twenty years ago, it used to be that elderly people wouldn’t go into hospital because medicine wasn’t advanced enough to save their lives. Effectively, when they went into hospital, they knew they were going into hospital to die. Now, it would seem you have a better chance of saving alive if you stay out of hospital.

Oh, and remember those iodine tablets that this same Government gave out to every home a couple of years ago?? Well, you don’t need them now