A chara, – The appointment of Dr Fatima Hamroush as minister of health in the new Libya is a remarkable event. She has exchanged the quiet pastures of Julianstown for the political minefields of Tripoli. It would have been reasonable to expect that both Dr James Reilly and the HSE would have publicly congratulated her, wished her well in her difficult task, and offered practical assistance in her new role. Ní mar a shíltear a bhítear.
HEALTHplus (November 29th) reported that Dr Hamroush was told by an unnamed administrator in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital that she could only go to Libya if she herself could find a locum to cover for her! One is reminded of the Brendan Behan story of the 1916 Rising: the wife of one of the insurgents arrived at the barricades at the GPO and asked, “Will you be going to your work in the morning?”
The poverty of the HSE response is, in its own small way, symptomatic of the lack of perspective that pervades our own dysfunctional health system. – Is mise,