Ombudsman attacks HSE’s ‘rotten culture of secrecy’

THE Government has been urged to root out a “rotten” culture of “excessive secrecy” in the HSE after the Ombudsman launched a scathing attack on health chiefs at the launch of her annual report.

Emily O’Reilly accused health chiefs of wasting public resources, operating in “a parallel universe” and frustrating her attempt to access vital family law records.

Launching her annual report – which revealed a record 10-year high in the number of complaints – a frustrated Ms O’Reilly described in detail the difficulty her office had accessing HSE records over payments to guardians of children.