Health legislation - HSE should be open to scrutiny

What Health Minister Mary Harney announced yesterday may well prove to be a prescription for a better health service.

She announced legislation which will protect whistleblowers in the health service by putting the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) on a statutory basis.

This will involve an amendment to the Health Bill 2006 after it was published yesterday, but, also importantly, will include an independent inspectorate that will assess nursing homes.