A slim, super-efficient HSE will no doubt be able to process our illnesses with glittering aplomb, but if we don't wake up to the causes of illness, the same result will out, writes JOHN McKENNA
JAMES REILLY’S HSE reforms will be a waste of time unless the causes of our ill health are addressed at the outset.
Dr Reilly, the Minister for Health, has a nice gig. He is fighting the big bad wolf, the evil stepmother, the bride of Frankenstein and Sauron – you can add whatever other demons you would like – who have camped together under the umbrella of the HSE, and he has the support of everyone in the country. Come on, Jim!
Early victories have been won: the board has resigned; legislation is planned to create greater accountability, and James Reilly – always looking purposeful, even with that unlucky beard – assures us that what is happening is merely part of a “change agenda”.
If we ignore the fact that the unfortunate term “change agenda” should really apply only to Beyoncé’s dress options for her live performances, we can certainly agree that a purposeful Minister with a scalpel in his hand looking to root out waste and duplication is a very good thing.
What a pity, then, that the “change agenda” for the HSE will almost certainly be a complete waste of time. Reforming the HSE is a bit like trying to fit a prosthetic limb onto a horse with a broken leg. It’s a waste of time because you have only one option: shoot the horse.
Not admitting that you have only the shoot-the-horse option is, of course, the elephant-in-the-room scenario (I want to apologise for all these animals around here). But the elephant that we are not talking about, of course, is this: what makes us ill? What has us occupying hospital beds and lying on trollies in the AE?
What is making us ill is our diets, and our lifestyles.
As Ann-Marie Hourihane pointed out in a magnificent piece of mockery in this newspaper recently, even our terrorists are obese. Die for Ireland? The ’Derry lads in balaclavas could only Pie for Ireland.
A slim, super-efficient and accountable HSE will no doubt be able to process our illnesses with glittering aplomb, but if we don’t wake up to the causes of illness, that same result will out: sickness will overwhelm the organisation, no matter how fit for purpose it may be.
The only time I have ever been in a room with the Minister was late last year, at a food festival reception in his neck of the woods, in Balbriggan, north County Dublin. It was a buzzing, joyous occasion in the ballroom of the hotel, as really successful local food events have a habit of being, and it was so jam-packed that I didn’t manage to get to meet Dr Reilly, as he then was.
There were lots of creative, talented, local food producers, proudly handing out tastes of what they make. What pleased me most wasn’t the excellent produce on show, but the fact that this area of the country, while well known for large-scale vegetable production, hasn’t traditionally been a hotbed of speciality foods. But there they were, doing the good thing.
I hope the Minister managed to taste some of the good things on display that day. More importantly, I hope he recognised the simple message that events such as the Balbriggan food fest quietly broadcast: eat well to be well.
Eating well to be well, allied to a decent amount of exercise, prevents us from getting sick. In fact, some doctors now go so far as to say the correct diet can even reverse the progression of illnesses such as coronary heart disease.
In short, the eat-well-to-be-well message is not just about prevention, as people such as myself have argued for years: it can also be about curing illness.
The Balbriggan food fest wasn’t a HSE event, but it was a HSE: it was a Health Service Event. Local foods from local people for local people don’t just repair local economies and create local cultures – they can also act as part of our health service, by stopping people becoming ill. The Health Service Executive is actually incorrectly named: it should be called the SSE: The Sickness Service Executive.
So, let’s hope that among his voluminous briefing papers regarding the “change agenda” with the SSE, that the Minister for Health has a paper that recommends creating HSEs: Health Service Events. Maybe they could even be held in those big expensive buildings called hospitals? I know lots of food producers who would love to attend, and show staff and patients the way to health.
The Minister can start making these happen by appointing some prominent food people to the new board he is planning to create. Last time, along with the occasional doctor and nurse, we had solicitors, accountants, businessmen, bankers and civil servants running the show.
Next time, I think we need Michael Kelly from GIY Ireland, and the food broadcaster Ella McSweeney, and Evan Doyle from the Brooklodge Hotel, and Georgina O’Sullivan from The Ballymore Inn.
All the answers Dr Reilly needs were in that ballroom in Balbriggan.
John McKenna is author of The Bridgestone Guides, bridgestoneguides.com
