Irish Examiner view: Inhumanity rather than inflexibility

HSE failings

The fact that Irish citizens are being forced to travel to another country for basic medical procedures in the first place is a tacit admission of gaps in our own healthcare system.

There are few organisations anywhere, never mind in Ireland, that have the dual perception issue of the Health Service Executive.

For its staff at the coalface, those nurses and doctors on the frontline in hospitals, no praise seems to be high enough. 

The staff dealing with overcrowded hospital wards, as described in Cork University Hospital here yesterday, for instance, are viewed as managing terrible working conditions to the best of their abilities.

The management cohort within the HSE, however, is the subject of sharp criticism on a regular basis, and the latest developments also throw an unflattering light on decision-makers within the organisation.

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As reported here yesterday, the HSE has been refusing to reimburse legitimate costs incurred by patients — who are often elderly and vulnerable — for going abroad to seek treatment because they could not get that treatment in Ireland. 

The Ombudsman has issued a report on the matter entitled In Sickness and in Debt, and has found that delays in reimbursing patients, or withholding of funds due to them under EU health schemes, has driven some patients into debt.

As outlined by the Ombudsman, this is not a grey area of legislative ambiguity, a genuine case of uncertainty as to the State’s obligations. 

It is inhumanity rather than inflexibility, a failure to recognise the basic obligation of those working for organisations such as the HSE: That public service means serving the public.

By definition, people who are going abroad for medical treatment are under significant mental stress as well as needing medical intervention; it is difficult to see any logical explanation for the HSE seeking to add to that stress by withholding funds due to those patients.

The fact that Irish citizens are being forced to travel to another country for basic medical procedures in the first place is a tacit admission of gaps in our own healthcare system.

The HSE might be better advised to focus its efforts on addressing those gaps rather than blocking reimbursement people are entitled to, but its management of schemes such as those investigated by the Ombudsman does not inspire confidence.