HSE Q&A plan - Real action only answer

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is adopting a new communications strategy in which high profiled pundits, politicians and patient advocates will be offered an opportunity to question senior HSE management about the malfunctioning of the health service.

The first person being approached under this new “open mind policy” is the celebrity lawyer Gerald Keane, who has been a regular chat show contributor on health matters. As a result, he is considered an opinion former. “We want to break down barriers and give an honest assessment,” Paul Conners the HSE’s national director of communications explained. “It’s good communications.”

There is no doubt that answering the questions posed by high profiled personalities and opinion formers is good communication, but in the last analysis what people really want is effective action, not excuses, which is what they will probably be getting.