RESIGNATIONS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Heard an interesting view on the resignations of Health Secretary Dr Yeoh and Hospital chief Leong Che Hung. The interviewer was talking Dr Vicky Someone of Oxford University who is some sort of infectious disease specialist. She had been part of a team of advisors to the government during the SARS debacle and she had been part of a team that had done an initial report into the handling of the situation immediately after the event.

Her views were…

1. The initial report concluded that given the information available to the various parties at the various stages of the whole fiasco, no blame could be attached for any individual. The situation was wholly unprecedented and actions taken at the time were reasonable given the information that was available at the time. She mentioned that with hindsight mistakes were made, but that doesn’t mean anyone else would have done any better.

2. We now have lost the only 2 senior administrators and health officials who have any experience of dealing with outbreaks of new and/or infectious diseases. This means the lessons they learnt have been lost to the system, and next time something comes along out of the ordinary the whole learning process has to be repeated.

While these don't necessarily mean they shouldn't have gone, I think number 2 in particular is worth considering before everyone gloats too much over “accountability”