Community nurses and home helps show how to run a health service

I’VE written a few columns recently about the things that don’t work in our health system.

And God knows I’m not the only critic. It seems that hardly a week goes by without a report that highlights serious deficiencies in the way the system is financed, resourced and managed, about secrecy and a lack of accountability, about priorities and the gap – often huge – between policy and implementation.

But you know something? In fact, do you know what the real tragedy is? The real tragedy is that there is so much about the HSE that works, and works really well. Especially when you come into contact with our health and social service systems on the ground, there is a huge amount to admire.