It's spending more money and treating more patients than ever before, waiting lists have never been shorter and, apparently, more people are happier with the service they receive, so why is it that members of cabinet can not make 'head nor tail' of it and why are so many people giving out about the state of our health service, again?

If the Health Service Executive and our health minister are to be believed, the health service is delivering a top class service, yet dissatisfaction with the state of our service has exploded in recent weeks, with every sector of society coming out against it.

By and large, the criticism has stemmed for an employment freeze that was introduced to ensure the HSE comes in within budget this year. As part of the 2007 financial break-even plan, the HSE introduced a temporary suspension of the recruitment of new staff to the end of October. It applied to permanent, temporary, locum and 'acting' appointments.

Doctors, nurses and patients groups reacted angrily, criticising the staffing restrictions, while local Minister éamon Ó Cuív is even on record as saying he found the organisation 'impossible to deal with', 'bizarre' and that he can't 'make head nor tail' of it. Public opinion seemed to follow.

But, is there anything wrong with out health service per se or is it just knee jerk reaction to an unpopular move?

The Health Minister doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong. Mary Harney has defended the service, saying 90 per cent of people who received health services are happy. She also hit out at the criticism of hospital waiting lists, saying people were waiting on buses every day yet we don't talk about people waiting for buses.

However, there has to be something wrong with a department that overspends to the point that it has to drastically tighten its belt four months before the year end.

Four years ago, we thought we were on the verge of the world-class service. In the wake of the Hanly and Brennan Reports, it was claimed there would be radical reform to provide better patient care, better value for money and better management. Instead, we have a service suffering from many of the same problems it did at the time and the public suffering from a serious case of déjà vu.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment