Warnings ignored - Staff left on a dangerous frontline

JUST as the warning to the Health Services Executive about defective cancer screening equipment at Portlaoise began to slip from the frontline of public consciousness another tragedy predicted by health professionals has come to pass.

A patient at a psychiatric day-care centre went on a knife rampage on Thursday, stabbing two doctors and leaving one — Dr Ananth Pullela — fighting for his life. Witnesses at St Anne’s Psychiatric Day Care Centre in Limerick compared the scene with something you might see at an abattoir.

That an attack of lethal nature was anticipated by four consultant psychiatrists who wrote to the HSE in Dublin — just last month — deepens the sense of outrage surrounding so many of the scandals in the health services.