Health service reform - Is it time to move the goalposts?

PROFESSOR Brendan Drumm has become, in a relatively short time, an accomplished media performer. He is convincing and reassuring, authoritative, articulate and polished. He has probably been tutored to use the cut-’em-off-at-the-pass tactic of answering awkward questions before they are asked and answering them on his own terms.

If he has had the PR training he has learnt his lessons exceptionally well and, if not, he may very well be in the wrong business.

The chief executive officer of the Health Service Executive who was appointed a little less than two years ago, has taken to his unenviable task with aplomb and conviction.

Like the Barack Obama of our health service he insists that he represents change and a new beginning. He has made the possibility of a redeemed health service seem inevitable by using fine phrases laced with optimism and possibility.

He emotes — just like Obama — and also like US senator he must know that the time to deliver on the fine promises is at hand.

In terms of confronting the carcass of a huge, Stalinist, inefficient and jealously guarded empire stretched over 11 constituent bodies — the old, politically managed health boards — two years may not be a very long time. However, that does not mean that day-to-day impact of health scandals on those denied or awaiting services is diminished. Nor does it mean that patience is infinite; neither does it mean that we can accept, almost on a weekly basis, shocking revelations of cock-ups and poor performances in health.

Last week’s story about the HSE using “strong-arm” tactics to try to get elderly people to withdraw claims made under the Government’s €300 million Nursing Home Refund Scheme is a case in point.

This sorry saga was especially ironic in a week when financial institutions were severely criticised for “misrepresenting” financial packages to elderly customers.

Today we report on another instance of an individual, a family and a community being disappointed with the HSE.

Edel Ryan, 12, from Co Tipperary lost the use of her legs in a car crash seven years ago.

However, she has been denied use of equipment at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, because, according to her mother, staffing shortages mean that access is confined to that hospital’s inpatients only.

Her family are so convinced that this service would improve Edel’s quality of life that they have embarked on a fundraising campaign to make the service available to all of those suffering spinal injuries in their area.

Edel’s family are entitled to feel disappointed with the state and that feeling is exacerbated by the fact that her school bus is not wheelchair-friendly.

The HSE said that physiotherapy services in the South Tipperary local health office area assess each individual and provide services based on needs and within available resources.

It is the frequency, the absolute relentless flow, of stories like Edel Ryan’s that make it hard to be patient.

Professor Drumm showed considerable patriotism in accepting this poisoned chalice. Many others would have preferred to work on their golf handicap or grow the perfect begonia but he stood up to the plate. He did this despite the incomprehensible political decision that there be no redundancies despite the amalgamation of 11 health boards.

Has the time come for Professor Drumm to use his considerable communication skills to point out that what is politically desirable is the very thing that is blocking the reform everyone desires?