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Shane Coleman: For too long, the health service has served the people who work in it and not patients

Heartbreaking case of Aoife Johnston’s death in University Hospital Limerick will for many confirm the narrative that our health service is fundamentally broken

Megan, James, Carol and Kate Johnston outside the Coroner’s Court in Limerick: This heartbreaking case will for many confirm the narrative that our health service is fundamentally broken.. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

Are we getting the full picture when it comes to our health service? Is it the underfunded, under-resourced, impossible mess which we regularly hear and read about in the media?

Or is that a convenient and simplistic narrative that lets vested interests off the hook, making patient-focused reforms more difficult to implement?

It’s easy to make the case for the former. Particularly when we hear the shocking evidence coming from the inquest into the tragic ...