Governments have failed but we also need to question our priorities

Why do we take to the streets in massive numbers to protest over water charges and not over such utterly appalling conditions in our health services? asks Alison O’Connor

OUR health service is like a broken down banger. Various efforts have been made to soup it up and pass it off as a shinier, faster and better vehicle, with the equivalent of new wheels or electric sunroof, but it’s the engine that really counts and that is banjaxed.

There is no escaping the sense of déjà vu as we find ourselves in yet another crisis situation. Health Minister Simon Harris described it as a “perfect storm” as more and more citizens succumb to a particularly virulent influenza. The thing is though that our health system exists in a state of almost permanent crisis; an event such as this simply pushes it into the territory of disaster.