The Sleeping Mandarin

Is the Health Service Executive Properly Engaged?

Is health service administratrion in Ireland properly engaged in gear? Or is the clutch slipping?

Swimming through the mists of the past few weeks the mantra "It will take time" comes to my mind. I think I heard it on the radio or television in succession from Mary Harney, from Professor Drumm who is the CEO of the Health Service Executive, and from Niamh Brennan who is on the board of the Health Service Executive. It seems to me that the convenient mantra - like the words of some reassuring hymn - is designed to anaesthetise the health moguls themselves from all angst and pain. Viewed in another way is it merely lazy arrogance like a cat playing with a mouse? Or is it plain prevarication and neglect?

If health service reform requires thought then give it thought. If it requires a plan then make a plan. If it needs money then spend. Or do we have to wait until users of the health services and workers in the health services are walked upon and totally trodden into the ground?

When I was young in the 1950’s one of the key images of Irish life at that time was the county council worker standing "on his shovel." It seems to me that the prevailing image of the new millennium is not the sleeping mandarin but the snoring wiseacre.