A most unhealthy state of affairs

THERE is a mote in the eye of HSE chief Brendan Drumm.

What is needed, he says, is not more hospitals, beds or frontline staff, but an accountable, ‘depoliticised’ health system.

Accountability? The CEO, who heads a small politburo of advisers, is the ‘accounting officer’ for a spend of €14 billion. He answers only to a presidium of 12 ministerial appointees and the minister for health. Dáil questions take months instead of days to answer.