Minister tells HSE to establish hospital groups
Health Minister Dr James Reilly has told the HSE to establish more public hospital groups around the country in preparation for the establishment of hospital trusts.
Minister Reilly said he had written to the HSE outlining his policy on setting up the hospital groups, and on the management arrangements for those groups, "as part of a series of steps to implement the Government’s health reform agenda".
“There is a significant benefit to be gained by organising the country’s hospitals into groups," Minister Reilly said.
"It will allow for Group Chief Executives to develop initiatives and solutions that take account of the synergies between a number of hospitals in the same geographic region thus ensuring quicker treatments for more patients.
"It will be a key part of the wider reform process on our way to Universal Health Insurance."
Work on developing the new hospital groups is underway, the Minister added.
However Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the directive from Minister Reilly "left more questions than answers".
"There is much to be worried about in the Minister’s letter to the chairman of the HSE today," Deputy Kelleher said:.
"Minister Reilly has stated that he wants the hospital groups created “as quickly as possible this year” as a forerunner to the establishment of hospital trusts next year.
"This is simply a case of more boards, more bureaucracy, more bluster," Deputy Kelleher added.
"The Minister has spent a full year in office coming up with a ‘Back to the Future’ plan that offers no clarity on continuity of services and re-establishes a health board structure that we abolished almost a decade ago.
"The Minister needs to be more upfront and accountable to the Dáil when announcing major reforms in the health service rather than rushing announcements out on a Friday evening ahead of a major party conference to create the appearance of achievement in office.”
Sinn Féin's health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin meanwhile said hospital services were collapsing while the Minister "builds castles in the air"
“Far from reducing bureaucracy in the HSE, the Minister seems set on implementing another round of bureaucratic changes while services to patients deteriorate further," Deputy Ó Caoláin said, citing cuts to health services in the North-East HSE region which will affect services at Cavan General Hospital.
