Celebrity lawyer left in dark over HSE remit

CELEBRITY lawyer Gerald Kean has not received answers to any of his questions he asked about the state of the health service more than three months ago.

Mr Kean had been invited by the Health Service Executive (HSE)national director of communications, Paul Connors, to quiz senior executives about the way the organisation was run.

The lawyer said he had no difficulty in meeting HSE senior management, but wanted to clarify a number of matters in relation to the executive first.

Mr Keane wrote to Mr Connors on June 3 and included 24 questions in relation to the operation of the organisation. He was not surprised, however, that the HSE had failed to respond to his questions that were also published in the social magazine RSVP.

“I would not say I was disappointed because I was not expecting much in the first place,” he said yesterday. “The questions were not the ones they wanted, obviously.”

Mr Kean said the questions weredesigned to address some fundamental issues and problems within the health system in Ireland.

He believes there is not enough support for frontline staff in the health service and procedures are too slow and expensive.

He is concerned that the “real money” is not getting through the way it should be to frontline services.

“The HSE executive is top heavy with clerical and bureaucratic staff and there are too many managerial grades and structures within the system,” he stressed.

Mr Kean told Mr Connors that he had hoped to get “clear, straight and unambiguous answers” to the questions he had raised.

“There is wanton waste within the health service and it is people who are losing out,” he said.

Mr Kean believes the HSE should be abolished and the Department of Health should take over the running of the health service, together with representatives from the various frontline services.

“There are 700 people working in the department and I have no idea what they are doing all day,” he said.

“I have been calling for the abolition of the HSE for years. We are spending €15 billion on the health service this year. There are only 4.5 million people in the country,” he said.