Ferris resigns from ‘talking shop’ HSE forum

A MEMBER of the HSE’s southern forum has resigned from the body claiming that it is just a talking shop that is doing nothing to improve services.

Former mayor of Co Kerry Toireasa Ferris said yesterday that her conscience wouldn’t allow her to take expenses of up to €400 per meeting for a forum where health officials won’t provide satisfactory answers to public representatives’ question.

Ms Ferris, who at 27 was the youngest member of the regional forum, said the former health boards had decision-making powers that were absent from the new body.

“I became increasingly frustrated with the whole process. It was all mouth and no teeth. At the very least we thought we’d get some answers, but we didn’t,” she said.

This frustration became apparent as far back as last February when three councillors, including Ms Ferries, walked out of a HSE meeting in Cork in protest at not getting the answers they were demanding from officials. A few weeks later, a number of them met and expressed the view that their expenses would be better spent on improving services.

Ms Ferris said that she would be entitled to about €220 in expenses for travelling to a meeting in Cork and up to €400 for a meeting in Kilkenny. There are 40 councillors on the forum representing Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Wexford, Waterford, Carlow and Kerry. HSE officials are also entitled to expenses.

Ms Ferris said she could have continued with what she claimed was “a charade”, but had to look at the consequences.

“Publicity from those meeting could be good for me, but I felt we were not achieving anything for constituents,” she said. “We would put down questions well in advance. We’d get back a long-winded answer and, at the end of it, there would be no specific timeframe announced. More often than not the answer contained a long-winded history of the topic, which we already knew.”

The former health boards had not only politicians on them, but representatives from the medical profession, including nurses, doctors and consultants, who frequently got answers to questions on services from health officials.

The HSE southern forum is to hold a meeting in Cork County Hall this afternoon at which it is expected that the growing frustration of other councillors will come to the surface.

“The only way this forum will be reformed is if all the representatives stand up and say it’s a farce which needs changing now,” said Ms Ferris.