Sir, – The news that the HSE has confirmed that it is apologising to four patient advocates for the way they were treated by the organisation, while welcome, needs to be examined against the HSE’s historical and ongoing treatment of patients (News, July 23rd).
In 2020, patient advocate Mark Molloy resigned from the HSE board over what he termed “tokenism”(“Patient advocate on HSE board resigns in protest at ‘tokenistic’ treatment”, News, January 20th, 2020; “The Irish Times view on patient advocacy: cause for concern”, January 27th, 2020). Mr Molloy had been appointed as a result of a recommendation from Dr Gabriel Scally following the CervicalCheck scandal.
The apology this week sadly shows little has changed and patient input at senior level in our health service remains close to non-existent.
Given this, it is extremely concerning that the working group looking at medical negligence costs has excluded patients and medical negligence victims from the group.
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Apologies are meaningless when health service management continue to ignore patient views, and patient input at a senior level remains non-existent. – Yours, etc,
RUARY MARTIN,
Dublin 18.