HSE told to draw up hospital plans

Minister for Health James Reilly has instructed the HSE to prepare proposals for the establishment of new groups of hospitals around the country.

He said the move would be a key part of his wider health service reforms that will break up the HSE and ultimately lead to the introduction of universal health insurance.

In his initiative announced this afternoon the Minister invoked section 10 of the Health Act 2004 which allows him to give formal policy direction to the HSE.

The letter sent to the chairman of the HSE, Michael Scanlan, does not specify the nature of the groups into which public hospitals around the country will be divided.

In his letter, Dr Reilly said: “There is a significant benefit to be gained by organising the country’s hospitals into groups. 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.”

In his letter Dr Reilly said he wanted the HSE to work with the Department of Health on the creation of hospital groups as quickly as possible on an administrative basis, ahead of the formal establishment of new hospital trusts.

The Minister said these would have a single consolidated management team with responsibility for the performance and outcomes within a clearly defined budget and employment ceiling for each hospital group.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher has said there were more questions than answers for the Minister following the decision to press ahead with hospital groups.

"There is much to be worried about in the Minister’s letter to the chairman of the HSE today. 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.

"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," Mr Kelleher said.