HSE advised by an ‘unelected secret cabal’

THE existence of a secret cabal to advise the HSE on the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in the south of the country is, in itself, troubling enough to those who care about democracy.

But when the clandestine camarilla of Cork’s elite is found to include a NAMA-associated property developer, the chief executive of a private hospital chain, the president of UCC, the former executive vice-president of a drug company, a senior lawyer, a senior taxation expert and a senior quantity surveyor, selfless and disinterested altruism is not the first explanation for its ‘genesis’ that springs to mind.

It is significant there is no place in this outfit for any elected public representative or any ordinary community activist, or for any ordinary person from Bantry, Mallow, Tralee or Clonmel.

There is certainly no place for any one of the many socially disadvantaged people who live in Cork’s poorer estates and who are stakeholders, too, in this enterprise of reconfiguration.

No place, indeed, for people so ordinary in their person, so undistinguished in their work and so humble in their origins, in the great work of leading change, of pursuing excellence and of getting the best out of their fellow man and woman.

No place at all because that is a job for only the most powerful, the most illustrious and the most magnificent among men.

It is true that medicine evolves and changes continually, as do communities, and the organisation of hospitals and medical services must reflect this. They must adapt and develop.

But the services, like the economy, must be reconfigured to operate only in the interest of the wider community who must be central – and not peripheral – to the difficult decision-making process.

An unelected clique of the most dominant and privileged in our society cannot know where the interests of ordinary citizens lie, or represent them.

Citizens can be grateful to the Irish Examiner because the faction you have uncovered (May 22) represents the interests of capital, and not the interests of the community. It is a good thing that this is known.

Dr Gerry Burke

Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist

Mid-Western Regional

Maternity Hospital

Limerick;

Chairman

Limerick East Constituency Council

Labour Party