United front needed to drive change - Reforming the health service

JUST as every January brings a plethora of new diets aimed at changing your life, every new Government promises a radical review of our dysfunctional health service. 

Some diets work for a short time but the silver bullet needed to transform our health service remains as elusive as an early appointment with a public-service oncologist.

Mary Harney and Micheál Martin offered a two-tier system — co-location — as part of their solution to the chaos undermining some public hospitals. James Reilly promised universal health care, while his successor Leo Varadkar, less than a year in Angola, tried to pick up the pieces; though he did find time to, shamefully, cut a meagre mental-health budget.