Hospital system ‘must be revolutionised’

“IF you were an alien and arrived here from Mars, you’d wonder just how this [health] system got going and how it was sustained.”

Those were the words used by Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm yesterday as he outlined the urgent need for an overhaul of the Irish health system, following an RTÉ television documentary on this country’s A&E services.

He said we have to learn from the example of St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny, where patients aren’t on trollies because innovations such as medical assessment units and GP access to hospital beds have helped them overcome what has become a “national emergency” elsewhere. Working systems must be changed, he said.