HSE should not threaten its regulator or the media
All healthcare includes the possibility of error. The great majority of HSE employees know this and work hard to avoid it. They should not be blamed or criticised when errors occur despite their efforts.
In return, those who work for the HSE have a duty to be open and honest when things go wrong and to learn from those mistakes.
This is not happening at senior corporate level within the HSE. Instead, the HSE has consistently displayed excessive defensiveness, a lack of transparency and a failure to learn from past mistakes.
The unseemly spat between the HSE and health regulator Hiqa has brought this into sharp focus.
