VIDEO: Cassells invokes 'A Few Good Men' scene during Navan ED debate in the Seanad
In the film, "A Few Good Men", there is a famous courtroom scene at the end where Tom Cruise questions Jack Nicholson, who plays the character, Colonel Jessup. He tells him that he ordered Lieutenant Kendrick to make sure that Private Santiago was not to be touched, but then Santiago is transferred off the base. He asked why there were two orders. Jack Nicholson replied that sometimes men take things into their own hands, to which Cruise retorted with the famous line: "No, Sir…[you said] Your men follow orders or people die".
The above is not a review of the 1992 Rob Reiner-directed movie but rather the opening salvo from Senator Shane Cassells addressing the Seanad on the future of emergency services at Navan Hospital earlier today.
The former Meath West TD used the Hollywood blockbuster to draw reference to the order given after Oireachtas Members from Meath sat in the Department of Health with 18 of the lead figures within the HSE and top clinicians in Ireland who, Senator Shane Cassells said, "painted a stark vista of clinical concerns regarding the operation of the emergency department in Navan."
"The leading clinical director in the room claimed he would rather see people in that queue in Drogheda than in Navan. That is hardly a sales pitch for the people of Navan. We heard that clearly, as did the Minister for Health. Consequently, that day he put a hold on the plans by the HSE to reconfigure the emergency department in Navan. Last Sunday, Paul Reid, the CEO of the HSE, adopted the role of Lieutenant Kendrick while on radio and decided he was going to ignore the order and do his own thing.
"My question is very straightforward. Who is in control of our health system? I do not want the stuff the Department will have prepared in advance. I want Deputy Feighan, as a Minister of State in the Department of Health, to answer that question. Who is in control of our health system?
Watch Senator Cassells' full Seanad contribution here