Sir, – Minister of State for Disability Kathleen Lynch, the HSE and the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) have all expressed shock at the treatment of residents at a Mayo nursing home as revealed in an RTÉ documentary, and well they should as it is a shameful occurrence. We clearly need to take steps to ensure that such disgraceful activities do not take place elsewhere.
However, a degree of prudence and common sense needs to be applied to achieve this. Many HSE managers and Hiqa operatives are in their current posts because they disliked frontline patient contact, while enjoying attendance at meetings and obligatory bureaucratic box-ticking. Given this, there is a danger that the response to the current scandal will simply result in the transformation of well-run, homely environments to cold, institutionalised facilities that meet all of Hiqa’s new standards. – Yours, etc,
Prof TED DINAN,
Head of Psychiatry,
University College Cork.