Health reforms in shambles, claims opposition
Health service reforms are in a shambles after a top medical expert rejected a €400,000-a-year post to help transform the sector, it was claimed today.
Professor Aidan Halligan was due to take up his new role as chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) next January, but decided to stay on as deputy chief medical officer with the British government.
Liz McManus, Labour Party health spokeswoman, said it was the latest in a series of errors plaguing the Government’s programme for reform.
“The whole process of health service reform is now bordering on the farcical,” Ms McManus said.
“We now appear to be getting parallel bureaucracies in the health service, with no improvement in the services available to patients.”
The Labour TD revealed appointments were being made at senior levels in the new health service structures, yet health boards, which are technically abolished, continue to make new appointments.
And she said Prof Halligan should give his views of the standards of service and professionalism right across the service in Ireland.
The health expert was to play a key role in the birth of the HSE which takes over the day-to-day running of the health service at the beginning of January. He had been offered an annual salary of €400,000 plus expenses.
