PATIENTS need to be put first, the chief executive officer of the new Tallaght Hospital told the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation yesterday.
Dr David McCutcheon said hospitals needed to get away from their "monolithic role" and focus more on the patient. Calling for a better integration of the health services, he said that in the Tallaght Hospital, which is due to open in the summer of 1998, they had taken steps towards this by agreeing a link up between the hospital and local GPs.
"However, the process is happening very slowly and is something of a quiet revolution. There is too much emphasis still on trying to distract, rather than integrate the system," Dr McCutcheon said.
Patients needed to be the focus of future planning and there needed to be respect for patient values. "Is the system designed for the patient or is it designed for the providers?" he asked.
"Certainly when I look at chief executives' offices and look at patients' rooms I would suggest that it is more obviously the provider who is accommodated best."
He was addressing the opening session of the IMO's conference entitled, "Planning for health care: Who should the managers be?"
The IMO chief executive, Mr George McNeice, said the discussion was appropriate considering the many crises facing the Irish health system.
The outgoing IMO president, Mr Hugh Bredin, highlighted the unrest among the various categories of doctors within the organisation. He said public health doctors were facing into industrial action because of a refusal to implement an agreement made with them in 1994 about the creation of permanent posts.
Consultants, he said, had rejected the recommendations of the Buckley Review group on their pay and conditions.