New hospital structure ‘futile’

The provision of a new management structure overseeing Ennis hospital without adequate funding will be a “futile exercise” Clare Fianna Fáil Deputy Timmy Dooley has warned. Deputy Dooley has also questioned the acute hospital policy being undertaken by Health Minister James Reilly following his decision to abandon hiring a private management company to manage

Galway University Hospital as well as the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
The East Clare Deputy claimed Minister Reilly seemed to be in “crisis management” mode following his dramatic late change for the management of acute hospitals in the Mid-West.
In the Mid-West, the regional hospitals at Limerick, Dooradoyle, Ennis and Nenagh, together with the orthopaedic hospital at Croom and the funding arrangements for St John’s Hospital, Limerick, are to be placed within a single management structure under new boss Ann Doherty.
The former head of the National Hospitals Office, who is currently part of the National Cancer Control Programme, will take up the role in January.
Acknowledging that Ms Doherty was a “highly capable, competent and professional health official”, Deputy Dooley admitted he was not very clear what her exact role would entail.
He also questioned the necessity to bring in a new layer of management, which effectively sidelined senior health officials in the region, who he believed were already doing an “excellent job” with the reorganisation of the acute hospital sector. He warned the provision of a new management structure for acute hospitals would be a ‘futile exercise’ without adequate funding.
Galway University Hospital, Merlin Park, Portiuncula, Ballinasloe and Roscommon General are to be placed under a single management structure with one CEO, Bill Maher, currently acting CEO of St Vincent’s University Hospital. He will take up the role on January 9 on secondment.
Under the new arrangements, each group will have one CEO, a single clinical governance model, one budget and one employment ceiling.
The Department of Health said the management solution, which had initially been sought “did not provide a satisfactory result” and so Health Minister James Reilly had dipped into the expertise already in the system.
In both hospital groups, the new chief executives will have the power to reallocate resources within the various hospitals.
They will be supported by a five-member board, also from within the health system, with special expertise. Those boards will become a formal sub-committee of the HSE board.
The department gave an example of the challenges the new CEOs faced.
It said in July there were 14,000 people who, by December 31, would have been waiting a year for surgery.
It has managed to reduce that to 650 but 500 of those are in Galway due to the problems that exist there.
A supervisory group of five individuals with expertise in different aspects of hospital management will provide support, on a part-time basis, to the two CEOs.
“I am very pleased that the special delivery unit in my department and the HSE had worked together to develop an appropriate solution to the challenge of putting in place effective new leadership arrangements for these two important groups of hospitals,” Minister Reilly said.
“This is good news for the communities served by all these hospitals.
“It will ensure a better health service in the West and Mid-West and assure the future of small hospitals in both regions.
“The new CEOs will take forward their important new roles on the basis of parity of esteem for the hospitals and teams within their hospital groups,” he said.