Control of health boards to be taken from politicians
The Government is set to scrap the country’s 11 health boards in the widest-ranging reform of the health service in 30 years.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s cabinet approved the plan today, and the formal announcement will be made tomorrow.
The blueprint is expected to take control of the health system away from central government and local politicians and transfer it to a professional health services executive.
Health Minister Micheal Martin tonight briefed senior executives from his department on the proposals and initiated consultations with trade unions representing the health sector’s 96,000 employees.
It is anticipated that four regional health offices will replace the health boards, and that a national agency will take over the running of the country’s hospitals.
The plan will be put into effect over the next three years.
Ahead of its official publication, the plan has already run into some criticism from government backbenchers, who believe it will end local input into their health services.
Local councillors play a significant role in health boards, and until now membership has been seen as an important part of the development of political careers.
The scheme also ran into advance criticism from Fine Gael.
Health spokesperson Olivia Mitchell, claimed: “These proposals are merely changes to a faulty system rather than system changes essential for effective and efficient healthcare delivery.
“This document is another decoy created by this Government to detract attention from the actual problems in the same way that their publication of the Health Strategy before the election, gave the illusion of action.”
