Sir, – The decision to task the existing Department of Health secretary general with heading up the healthcare taskforce to deal with waiting lists is a mistake ("Robert Watt to lead healthcare waiting list taskforce", News, September 28th).
While Robert Watt is a relatively new appointment to his position the Department of Health, as a unit this department is full of those whose mismanagement has led us to a situation where we have 908,000 on hospital waiting lists and close to 750 unfilled consultant posts. Disability services especially are broken with parents of children with special needs effectively abandoned and increasingly left to seek even basic therapy services privately. The last 18 months have led to daily calls to “protect the vulnerable” yet when it comes to securing services for their children, parents of children with disabilities are repeatedly forced to take the HSE to the High Court. It seems when it comes to our most vulnerable children, the people we need to protect them from are the very State agencies that should be providing services. Reform, when it happens, invariably is forced on the Department of Health by people like Vicky Phelan, Mark Molloy and other patient advocates. The suggestion that Department of Health insiders can lead radical reform is utterly delusional. Nothing in the history of this department suggests it is either willing to or capable of the radical reform required. What is needed is fresh thinking and real patient input at the most senior level within this department. Most of all what is required is a Minister and a senior management team that are willing to hold HSE senior management to account for their ongoing failure to deliver services. – Yours, etc,
RUARY MARTIN,
Dublin 18.