The 1973 Pink Floyd song Us and Them with the words, “forward he cried from the rear and the front rank died”, is particularly relevant to the Irish health sector. The recent revelations about top-up payments to senior executives of voluntary hospitals, and four chief executives of these hospitals writing letters about how the latest cuts in health budgets will affect services, epitomises an ingrained mind-set of “us and them”. Prof John Crown, consultant oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital, remarked on how extraordinary it was to hear those from “the other [management] side” admitting how cuts are affecting patients, as usually only clinicians speak out. Liam Doran, general secretary of the...
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