Time for a watchdog with teeth - Oireachtas health hearings

EVER since the avoidable death of Savita Halappanavar, in October 2012 at University Hospital Galway, our maternity services have, for all the right and all the wrong reasons, been the subject of questioning, often outraged, attention.

Parents, partners and families all needlessly bereaved — and later betrayed — have been misled and their investigations stymied. Without their courage and determination it would be business as usual in our dysfunctional and seemingly dishonest health service. The tragic reality is that it may still be business as usual — the Sir Galahad needed to drive real change has yet to announce himself — or herself — with the force needed to match the situation.

Health professionals have blamed a shortage of resources and reduced funding for a litany of baby deaths and though that must be a factor it does not explain the basic failures in administrating drugs or using equipment that led to some of the infant deaths in Portlaoise. Neither does if fully explain the failure to implement Hiqa proposals designed to protect patients. Neither does a shortage of resources explain away the behaviour that made Health Minister Leo Varadkar admit that he felt “ashamed” at how some hospital patients had been treated by his medical colleagues.