Reform delays could prove costly

WHEN the Brennan Commission report on value for money in the health service came out it was acclaimed as a long overdue assault on a two-tier system where the rich get instant treatment and the poor join endless hospital queues.

But since its publication last March, the radical document has suffered the fate of many a report, gathering a fine layer of dust on a department shelf.

Because of this tardiness, Professor Niamh Brennan, chairperson of the group behind the study, has taken the unusual step of breaking her silence and criticising the delay in appointing key personnel needed to drive reforms of the creaking system.