Would firing Mary have changed things?

# 20

Posted: 30/11/2007 10:13

Your article is excellent but Harney has created a new bureaucracy and toadied up to the bureaucrats of old by leaving them in situ, thereby creating a new HSE quango while all the redundant penpushers are still drawing wages that should have gone to improving the patients lot.crazy. Bottom line. Nobody takes on the unions.Bart Ahern would not permit it.So little changes. France is now belatedly trying to rein in their public sector but the outcome is far from certain and will certainly cause considerable upheaval before its all over.
There is -as you indicate-nobody the other side of the political fence with the balls to do it either. Thats the real despair.Ireland is like a country trapped in a time warp.Commissions, consultants reports, Tribunals by the dozen-and at the end of it all back to square one.The price of pacification.A two tier nation as well as a two tier health system. Multi-millionaire stud farm owners who have grown rich on tax free stallion fees during the Haughey decades,and other speculators now poised to control everything from private hospitals to private nursing homes.
meanwhile the poor quietly die on the waiting lists for appointments, treatment, and unaffordable care, in their last years.

# 19

Posted: 30/11/2007 09:28

I don't believe that sacking her would have improved things but I think what's at the heart of many peoples concerns about centres of excellence for Cancer care, is access. It will be extremely difficult for someone in North west Donegal to have to go to Galway, while ill, with no adequate publiuc transport system, for cancer care on a regular basis.
Centres of excellence don't serve they way theyshould / must without infrastructure to support them

# 18

Posted: 30/11/2007 06:01

Until we all realise that it is the patient who is important and not the institutions the health service will continue to be disfunctional. My wife recently came out of hospital and was ridiculed to such an extent by a nurse in a warfarin clinc in Cork that she can no longer attend there. She is since on medication as a direct result of that incident. How could a nurse treat a patient in such a manner that it would make her problems worse instead of better? The Health Service is not a soccer team - don't sack the manager every time we lose a game.

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There is no smoke witofire!

# 17

Posted: 30/11/2007 01:02

It could have been a lot worse. It could have been Dick Roche!!!

# 16

Posted: 29/11/2007 23:02

really great article niall.well done.BUT a few things!!!as a nurse in an acute dublin hospital for 22 years now i think mary harney is my 8th minister(open to correction.some were gone very quick!!)and therefore i have learned to have a fairly cynical reaction to most politicans at this stage.there is no doubt that patient care has improved immensely in the 22 years but this is as it should be.however your contention that very little has been privatised under minister harney is simply untrue.90 million was spent under the ntpf in the last 12 months mostly in private healthcare facilities dealing with only 17,000 patients.while public surgical waitng lists were unacceptable whether this equates to value for money is questionable and lets NOT forget there is no quality assurance in private healthcare facilities as we found out with the barringtons issue.ancedotal though the evidence is in my hospital we have dealt with a lot of complications with the ntpf some extremely serious for the patient involved.

# 15

Posted: 29/11/2007 22:14

Nobody in the H.S.E. seems to take responsibility for any mistakes made. I work in the health service and I can asure you there are far more chiefs than indians. Patient care has not improved one bit

# 14

Posted: 29/11/2007 20:37

Ask Ned O Keefe if he would take the job?

# 13

Posted: 29/11/2007 19:56

Congrats on a well-balanced piece of work.

My answer to your question is - Yes - I think that firing Mary Harney would have made things even worse.

She spent her first term in office as Minister for Health getting to grips with the monumental problems that exist in running the health service. Why throw all that away only to start again?

A lot of the problems are inherited ones thanks to neglect by previous governments. Mary Harney needs all the support she can get to turn our health service around.

However, I still do not agree with her policy of co-located private hospitals. We need further debate on this issue.

# 12

Posted: 29/11/2007 19:49

Sirs,

To reinforce/continue an analogy that has been used in the 'press' this week :

How many people would get on a plane if they had doubts about the pilots' competence ?

How many people would bring their children on that same plane if they 'knew' that the information the pilot was receiving from the 'flight-controllers' was minimal/late...and not conducive to their absolute safety ?

How many 'passengers' would be shocked and aghast to discover that the 'pilot' had somehow empowered/employed those same 'flight-controllers' that had been negligent in their provision of safety information to that same 'pilot' ?

If we fired the 'original pilot', what guarantee would we have that the replacement would be more competent ?...in the present 'system'...absolutely none !
However...in firing the 'original pilot'...it would indicate to the 'airline authority' that the system the original pilot had put in place was dangerous and was in need of radical reform...and that should normally be enough to warrant STRUCTURAL CHANGE !

For my part....I would not wish me or my loved ones to.....'fly, on a wing and a prayer'....as many politicians would wish us to do.

Would firing Mary have changed things? :

As implied above....probably not....because no matter who was in charge, the following corrupt 'ideals' would still be evident :

'Power, control, cronyism and nepotism' are necessary to insure retention of the pullman seats on the 'gravy train'.....for the 'royal family' that makes up the so-called legislature in this retrograde country !

# 11

Posted: 29/11/2007 19:41

Very good article well presented. I agree with every paragraph.

# 10

Posted: 29/11/2007 19:23

I'm happy that Mary Harney survived the no confidence vote. She has to be given time to sort out the health service & it will take time I personally think there is too much political interference in the heath system

# 9

Posted: 29/11/2007 19:05

Of course things would change. Mary Harney does not support public health. She is a strong advocate of private healthcare. Therefore her decisions are coloured by this bias. Her attitude is best summed up in her description of sick people as 'consumers' and she wants them to 'shop around'. She doesn't seem to understand that ordinary patients want to be treated in a caring and clean environment with the best medical care possible. She has been confrontational with all health workers and is contuing to pay vast sums of money to spin doctors to churn out phrares like 'vested interests', 'reforms', 'centres of excellence', etc. These words are meaningless in the mouths of Mary Harney and Brendan Drumm.
If a new Minister for Health was appointed who had empathy for healthcare workers and for patients and if the proper investment was made in the public health service the health service could be turned around in quite a short time. I am disappointed that the editor has fallen for the latest spin from the Dept of Health ie nobody else wants the job.

# 8

Posted: 29/11/2007 18:49

How does any of that explain the fact that she (Mary Harney) does not know what is going on within the HSE? Why is she not even privy to a report on what went on in Cork?
Why, considering there has been a court case ongoing (until recently) re a breast cancer misdiagnosis, that we are only finding out about all that now.
She had to know about that.
The politicians have already said that they cannot get any info out of the HSE.
So, if politicians AND the Minister cannot get the answers, how on earth can they fix the problems?

# 7

Posted: 29/11/2007 18:00

Possibly , and maybe even for the better !!! Is she competent if she can't even get her reportees to to keep her abreast of all the current burning issues ? She appeared before the Oireachtas and was left hanging when she was informed that there had been further revelations coming out of Portlaoise. She couldn't even provide a fast track for the original women caught up in the debacle as she PROMISED.I don't doubt her work ethic or her integrity but the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Accountability starts at the top.

# 6

Posted: 29/11/2007 17:53

Em Zoe, Michael Martin was the Minister for Health who implemented the smoking ban not Mary Harney.

But to answer the question no it wouldn't have changed things. In fact without her it would be much worse.

# 5

Posted: 29/11/2007 16:38

No, firing Mary wouldn't change things. But her staff need to be proactive in asking the right questions of HSE staff. Nobody is going to volunteer information to her about their own inefficiencies.

# 4

Posted: 29/11/2007 16:32

We are lucky to have Mary as Minister for Health. She has shown courage and determination to push improvements through. Think back to the time Dublin's air was full of smoke and everyone had upper respiratory tract problems; who got the air cleaned up? Everyone said it couldn't be done but she did it. She wanted the Health job because she saw what happened to her own mother and didn't want that for anyone else. She should be supported but she should also be better at putting her ideas and plans across to the public who would support her if they got the message clearly enough.

# 3

Posted: 29/11/2007 16:22

I don't think that it could change things now. If she was fired before she brought in the HSE then it would have made a difference. The only thing to save our health system is to get rid of the Hanly Report and the HSE. Bring back Matrons in our Hospitals, then we would have CLEAN hospitals with less cross contamination and diseases. Get rid of most of the office staff and bring back more nurses and doctors... it is doctors and nurses that are needed in hospitals, not administration staff. But hey, this is Ireland there have to be jobs for the cronies.

# 2

Posted: 29/11/2007 16:20

I have to congratulate you on a well-written unbiased, hype- free piece of writing.
While Mary Harney may make mistakes and is either getting incorrect information or no information from the HSE, she is also the best Minister for Health we have had for a long long time and I am firmly convinced the only politican capable of completing the necessary reform of the health service.

# 1

Posted: 29/11/2007 15:47

I don't think she is the problem; Brendan Drumm shouled be accountable.