Remember Susie Long - Ahern could cure the health crisis

IT IS unimaginable that in Ireland a mother of two might die at 41 because of she did not have private healthcare insurance, yet that is what happened to Susie Long, who was buried yesterday.

Ms Long died last Friday. She had bowel cancer.

She came to prominence when she pointed out she had to wait a vital seven months for a colonoscopy while, at the same time and at the same health facility, a private patient had one within days of meeting his GP.

It seems that criticising our health service — for which our Health Minister and her Cabinet colleagues say they have no responsibility — is a bit like raging at the wintery night. Though exhausting and emotionally draining it achieves very little.

Virtually every day there is disheartening publicity surrounding somebody suffering from a illness that cannot be treated because the resources are not in place.

On other days it is the HSE fighting consultants to try to resolve issues peripheral to anyone awaiting urgent treatment. Another day it might be lobby groups fighting to retain long-established services in their locality, the next maybe a nurses’ strike. The next day an impassioned plea from a mother or sister awaiting a breast cancer assessment. Another day a scathing report on nursing homes or about the absence of dialysis services. Maybe even services curtailed because contracts are not renewed as is usually anticipated.

The list seems endless but it has a very real impact on the tens of thousands of people languishing on public waiting lists. Criticism from inside the system is almost as loud as the complaints from those awaiting its services. Hardly a week passes without some senior professional offering forthright, first-hand criticisms.

Even the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin had his ha’penny’s worth at the weekend, saying it was a very poor reflection on our society that hospitals are now places you go to get sick rather than to be cured.

We have been told for a considerable time that Mary Harney is an excellent health minister. The evidence of institutionalised crisis would suggests otherwise and the time has come to consider an alternative.

Archbishop Martin also suggested we are at a point when we need a quantum leap in our political culture.

Ironically, as he enters the twilight of his political career, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern may have just what is needed to resolve the crisis. His skill at cajoling and facilitating compromise are his true qualities. By taking on the health portfolio it would give him an opportunity to establish a legacy he could be proud of and an opportunity to earn the forgiveness of all the Susie Longs and their families.