A cautionary tale of two health services

HAVING watched recent programmes on the BBC in which businessman Gerry Robinson attempted to sort out waiting lists and management issues in an NHS hospital, I wondered what he would make of our health service.

Mr Robinson faced many challenges in dealing with consultants and managers alike, and was frustrated daily by the seeming inability of the two “factions” to join forces to achieve goals which would be to their mutual benefit, and to the benefit of their patients.

This is a problem which is rampant in the Irish health service. There is no sense of a combined effort towards the greater good, just rigidity and unwillingness to change.