Madam, - In my opinion everything Judge Harding Clarke said last week about the Health Service Executive response to the Lourdes hospital report is true.
I have no confidence that any meaningful attempt to change and reform the management culture in the hospital service will occur in the medium term.
In that event the resource deficits and many of the system failures identified in the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry Report will not be corrected.
How mature and enlightening it would have been if the HSE had first considered and reflected on her comments and then welcomed them with the same enthusiasm it embraced the inquiry report.
The valid and very serious criticisms the report directed at the medical and nursing professionals were again highlighted by the judge last week. These have been acknowledged and accepted without reservation by both professional groups.
The report is a defining moment for all of us charged with delivery of medical care. Its menu of recommendations are not of the a la carte variety.
Likewise their introduction and implementation will not be manifest and realised on the sands of spin. - Yours, etc,
F. LENNON, FRCSI, Consultant surgeon and former medical director, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.