Caring must be about more than box ticking

Minister Lynch, the HSE and HIQA all expressed shock at the treatment of residents at a Mayo nursing home.

We clearly need to take steps to ensure such disgraceful activities do not take place again. However, prudence must be applied.

Many HSE managers and HIQA operatives are in their posts because they disliked frontline patient contact, while enjoying meetings and

bureaucratic box ticking.

Given this, there is a danger that the current scandal, will result in well-run homely environments becoming cold institutionalised facilities that meet HIQA’s new standards.

Prof. Ted Dinan

Professor of Psychiatry

University College Cork