No doctor on board

In a typically Irish spat, the HSE has been criticised because it will not provide doctors to support Ireland’s first charity air ambulance service.

A decade-long campaign to launch such a service comes to fruition next month, partially, at least, when the operation goes live.

It had been hoped that the helicopter would be manned by doctors and paramedics, but that will not be the case, despite criticism from the highest level of our emergency services.

This raises obvious, troubling questions.

Why is the HSE so unambitious, so committed to practices that could easily be improved?

The second question is on grander scale: Why is such a service, regarded as unremarkable in rich, modern countries like this, dependent on charity?

Surely the HSE — annual budget nudging towards €16bn for a population of less than 5m — should be in a position to provide it from its own above-average resources?

Once again, we seem to face a failure of management dressed up as a shortage of resources.