Irish Examiner view: Patients must be at the centre of our health service 

Senior management at CUH, one of the country’s biggest hospitals, are seeking additional staff and beds as a matter of urgency

We run the risk of forgetting those most directly affected by problems with the health service — the patients. Picture: iStock

The markers of winter are all around us now, ranging from the drop in air temperature to invitations to get the flu jab, which many readers have received by now.

A particularly unwelcome consequence of this season is the squeeze it puts on hospital services every year, which gives additional significance to a story from Niamh Griffin here this week. She revealed that nine clinical directors at Cork University Hospital (CUH) have sent an eight-page letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin calling for the urgent approval of 172 priority posts and authorisation for staffing for 21 acute beds, as well as an independent assessment of staffing shortages.

The fact that senior management at one of the country’s biggest hospitals are seeking additional staff and beds as a matter of urgency should be a matter of concern to all, but writing to the Taoiseach himself makes their call all the more relevant.

Last week, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was highly critical of CUH for its performance and linked that criticism to high levels of staff recruitment at the hospital, though at that time she did not appear to factor in a 10% jump in patient numbers at CUH.

Now senior management appear to have gone over the minister’s head by appealing directly to the Taoiseach to intervene. The fact that senior clinicians at CUH are seeking an independent assessment of staffing shortages there could also be interpreted as bypassing the minister.

The matter is complicated even further by other considerations — on one hand CUH is in the Taoiseach’s constituency, while on the other he offered strong support to the health minister when this matter was raised with him last week.

These are the kinds of political challenges that face ministers — and taoisigh — all the time, but focusing on this aspect of the situation runs the risk of forgetting those most directly affected by problems with the health service: The patients. 

For their sake this needs to be resolved before winter really bites.

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Liberty charity

Readers will be aware of the ongoing controversy surrounding Liberty Recycling, the clothing charity which has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Gardaí are investigating how large sums of money moved through the organisations’s accounts, and those of linked entities, and the force has confirmed that those investigations are focusing on allegations of money laundering, with the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau directly involved.

Clearly there are concerns that criminals have infiltrated Liberty Recycling, though whether those criminals are based in Ireland or in Africa is not yet clear.

The consequences have been swift: More than 100 workers at Liberty and linked entities have been laid off, while clothing and textiles are stranded in its Dublin depot. In addition, the charity’s network of 400 clothes banks all over the country cannot be emptied.

If that seems draconian, the view of the Charities Regulator on Liberty should be considered: “Based on the information currently available, it appears that some of this conduct is unlawful and/or was carried out for the benefit of an organisation, membership of which is unlawful.”

This suggests a complete breakdown in oversight within the organisation.

The fact that Liberty’s operations appear to have shut completely is clearly bad news for its employees. Many of those employees are trying to recover from drug abuse and had secured places on the charity’s community employment scheme, and this disruption in their recovery is clearly not going to be of any benefit to them.

In addition, stories such as this do not just affect the particular body which is involved. They tar the entire charity sector with the same brush, including legitimate, hardworking charity bodies, by casting doubt over compliance with those organisations.

Such organisations are always seeking to raise funds for their work, but scandals such as this week’s inevitably make fundraising all the more difficult, as donors will naturally have concerns about how their money will be spent. Clarity about the Liberty case is needed urgently for both the organisation’s workers and the charity sector as a whole.

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Patrick Stewart

Actor Patrick Stewart, who died this week at 86, had a long and distinguished career on stage, dating back to the 60s, as well as his work with the likes of Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson.

One of his early screen forays came in Ireland. He featured as Leondegrance in John Boorman’s Excalibur — alongside the likes of Ciarán Hinds, Gabriel Byrne, Bríd Brennan, and Liam Neeson, — which was filmed in Wicklow.

However, Stewart will always be remembered for Star Trek: The Next Generation, the hit science fiction TV series, in which he played Jean-Luc Picard — a French character, despite the actor’s inimitable English baritone.

Stewart’s striking bald appearance and calm authority were key to the success of the series’ seven seasons — and several spin-off films, disproving the worries of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry about the actor — he had envisaged someone who was “masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair”.

Stewart’s stage colleagues were equally unconvinced at the time.

His great friend and X-Men co-star Ian McKellen said this week that he met Stewart on the street in London while the latter was mulling over the Star Trek offer and recalled saying: “‘But Patrick, think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?’ Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did.”

Rest in peace.