Government to confirm HSE chief has stepped down

THE GOVERNMENT is expected to announce today that the chief executive of the Health Service Executive, Cathal Magee, has stepped down. The HSE last night said it was not commenting on the issue. However, his departure is believed to be known to senior figures within the health authority.

Details of Mr Magee’s departure are expected to be confirmed today as the Government announces sweeping changes to governance in the HSE. The Cabinet yesterday approved the publication of new governance legislation and this is to be published by Minister for Health James Reilly today.

Under the Minister’s plans, the existing management structures in the HSE will be replaced by a new system of directors. A new director general will be appointed to run the organisation.

Tensions have grown at the top of the health service in recent months as the financial position has deteriorated. A recent HSE board meeting that considered the escalation of its financial deficit to €281 million was described as “very tense”.

Mr Magee has argued the spiralling overrun is not all the fault of the HSE, pointing to the failure of the Department of Health to introduce legislation to allow for the generation of about €140 million in additional revenue from health insurers and to agree a promised new deal with the pharmaceutical industry to deliver more than €100 million in savings.

Dr Reilly recently appointed a consultant from the UK to examine the capacity of the HSE to manage its €13 billion budget.

It emerged last week the Government will have to cut health spending over the next two months to fulfil a new commitment it has given under the terms of the EU-ECB-IMF bailout. At the conclusion of the seventh review of the bailout, the troika said programme implementation “remained strong in a challenging environment”, but it sounded notes of caution about Ireland’s unemployment, its budget deficit being the largest in the EU and the weakening external environment.

Dr Reilly was asked to comment on the development but his spokesman was unable to respond by late yesterday evening.