‘Health care system failed to clarify rights’

OMBUDSMAN Emily O’Reilly branded HSE care for the elderly as chaotic, ad hoc and confusing during her speech at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Donegal.

Ahead of the release of her hard-hitting probe into the health service, Ms O’Reilly said the state was effectively washing its hands of responsibility in this area, although she believed the newly-introduced “Fair Deal” nursing home support scheme would improve things.

The Ombudsman warned the HSE her report would prove uncomfortable reading, saying: “It will tell of a largely chaotic, ad hoc system, in which many people were not alone confused about their rights and entitlements but also suffered years of stress and crippling expense because of the deliberate failure of the system to clarify their rights to public care let alone provide for them.