Healthcare crisis - Honeymoon over for the Tánaiste

BARELY a fortnight in office, and already the harsh realities of Ireland’s ailing health service are clattering Tánaiste Mary Harney.

To the Government’s shame, two more children about to undergo heart surgery at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, had to be sent home when their operations were deferred due to an on-going lack of specialist care nurses.

This frightening scenario recalls the tragedy when the hospital was forced to send home two-year-old Roisín Ruddle after her heart surgery was cancelled for precisely the same reason. Early the next morning she died in her mother’s arms.