A visionary plan, but only in theory

It’s hard to get enthused about proposed health reform at a time when the Government is busy picking apart the very structure that, less than a decade ago, was supposed to “change forever the landscape of the Irish Health Service”, according to then minister Micheál Martin.

Alas, that structure is now almost as widely despised in Ireland as banks — which is not to say that individual health personnel are in the same vilified bracket as bankers.

However, the public perception of the HSE is by now so tarnished, that the Government has decided the best approach is total dismantlement. Hand in hand with this reform is a proposed overhaul of acute hospitals, described by James Reilly, the health minister as “as the most fundamental reform of Irish hospitals in decades”.