Health service - How poor is HSE’s state of health?

When the state’s 11 health boards were being abolished to form the single Health Service Executive (HSE) at the beginning of 2005, Health Minister Mary Harney explained that government policy should be judged on the provision of better health services for people and better value for taxpayers’ money.

Today, in the first of a three-part investigation, the Irish Examiner evaluates the current state of the HSE after five years in operation.

The evaluation is particularly pertinent in the light of the controversy over the misdiagnoses in which a number of pregnant women in different parts of the country were advised to have the foetus removed as there was no foetal heartbeat.