Health service crisis - How many patients have to die?

TODAY’S heart-rending report on the tragic death of an 85-year-old woman, who died following hospital treatment for a broken wrist, is yet another damning indictment of Ireland’s health system and particularly of management procedures at one of the country’s biggest hospitals.

It is poor consolation to the distraught family of Honora Madden that the general manager of Cork University Hospital has offered his “profound regret and sincere apology for the overall management processes” leading up to their mother’s death.

There can be no denying this was a death that could have been avoided. Nor can there be any excuse for how Ms Madden was treated by a system where she was accorded neither the dignity nor respect due to a woman of her advanced years.