PIMS tragedy aftermath

Yet that is what the PIMS inquiry has effectively revealed.

The prime minister has now given authorities three months to implement the short-term measures identified after the fire, but the more important test is whether this deadline finally produces the institutional discipline that repeated warnings and previous recommendations failed to achieve.A hospital's real standard is judged by whether its systems function when lives depend on them.

The three-month deadline at PIMS is therefore an opportunity to demonstrate that the state can act on institutional failures before they produce another tragedy.