Our health service and lack of leadership is enough to make you sick

A FAIRLY routine medical procedure went wrong and I had to go to the Accident and Emergency at Tralee General Hospital last week. I immediately realised the agony that one would have to endure if there were no local hospital.

Having heard about patients having to wait for hours to be seen at other hospitals, I explained the situation to one of the doctors. He saw to it that I was treated immediately and thereafter I was “comfortable,” as they say in the communiqués. I spent the next four hours on a trolley, part of the time in the hallway. I could not write more highly about the kindness, or the professionalism of the hospital staff.

Everything was recorded on paper and there were voluminous files to be seen. Having worked on government files over the years, this was no surprise, but the difference is that few people ever get to see the health files. In the course of researching one book, I was given some health files by mistake on one occasion. When the archivist realised the mistake he asked me to sign that I would not divulge any of the material because it was highly confidential.