Madam, - You are right to assert in your Editorial of September 25th that, but for the courage of consultant geriatrician Des O'Neill in fearlessly standing by his report into the Leas Cross nursing home scandal, the interests of elderly patients would indeed be under still greater threat.
Countless times over many years I have had cause to write in these columns about how that same bureaucracy has failed the people we work with every day, those who find themselves homeless on the street.
However, what is so disturbing about this case is that despite all of the so-called reforms being undertaken, with even a new name and thousands being spent on rebranding to give us the HSE, the bureaucracy is apparently worse than ever in terms of the way it treats people. When you assert that it is a continuation of bureaucratic arrogance and neglect you do not go far enough because the way in which the HSE has sought to handle the Leas Cross scandal sets new lows. We need much more public outrage or the health and social services will never be reformed.
All of the health and social service bureaucracies must be forced to become people-centred and put the patient first or nothing will change. While that might sound simplistic and over-idealistic it means nothing less than ensuring that the rights of all patients are fully respected. And we have a means of compelling the HSE and all other bureaucracies to do that by ensuring that they adopt human rights based approaches in all of their work.
In that context, the buck stops with the Minister for Health and I would strongly recommend to her that she legislate urgently to make that happen and end the suffering of those at the mercy of the HSE who are apparently serving its interests rather than being served by it. - Yours, etc,
ALICE LEAHY,
Director and Co-Founder,
TRUST,
Bride Road,
Dublin 8.