A damning failure to act in Portlaoise

My Medical Independent column from 23 July 2015 on why the HSE and Department of Health failed to act, given that they knew certain Portlaoise services were dangerous a year before the HIQA report.

An internal, unpublished HSE report, titled the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise Performance Diagnostic Report, was obtained by the Medical Independent through a Freedom of Information request. It was cited regularly in the HIQA Portlaoise report, which investigated the safety, quality and standards of services in Portlaoise following the RTÉ Investigations Unit exposure of a series of babies’ deaths there.

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Our health system, at or over the tipping point

My Medical Independent column on how the health service is now at tipping point but if more cuts are implemented the worst is yet to come.

A speech not of ‘national importance’

Reductions in waiting lists achieved by throwing resources at the problem is not a sustainable solution. Here is my Medical Independent column from 20 February 2014.