The Government will introduce amendments to planned legislation setting out specific duties of health service providers to share information with the HSE, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said.
She told the Seanad on Tuesday that there was a “poor culture of data-sharing across the Irish health service”.
The Minister said she would be proposing a small number of specific amendments to a planned Health Information Bill in the Seanad.
She said these would clarify more precisely the duty of health service providers to share information, while other amendments would also include a reference to “integrated service planning” and the “effective and efficient use of resources” within the public interest purpose of policymaking and regulatory activities.
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The Irish Times reported last November that the Minister was at odds with a number of voluntary hospitals – institutions that are mostly funded by the State but have their own independent boards – over HSE moves to introduce a new financial management system across the health sector.
Several voluntary hospitals are concerned over the impact the move could have on their independence. They are seeking changes to reflect the different legal regime under which they operate and the responsibilities of their directors under company law and legislation governing charities.
The Minister on Tuesday spoke of her “frustration” when the HSE encountered resistance last year among some voluntary hospitals – known technically as Section 38 bodies – to the adoption of its Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). She said these hospitals were in receipt of “enormous recurring public investment”.
“In my engagement with section 38 bodies and others, I have been consistently clear in setting out my position and expectation that the use of public funds across the health sector necessarily comes with a requirement for greater efficiency, oversight and, fundamentally, transparency.”
Carroll MacNeill said IFMS was “a single, integrated financial management system designed to improve financial reporting, expenditure analysis, and forecasting across the health sector”. She said IFMS was part of the wider health service financial reform programme and was a key enabler of financial reform and transparency, as well as supporting the objectives of Sláintecare and the broader digital health agenda.
“It is my belief that the alignment of financial reporting across the publicly funded health sector through the use of IFMS is a crucial transparency measure for the State to ensure value for investment delivered across the health service,” she said.
“All section 38 voluntary hospitals will be expected to proactively co-operate with the implementation of IFMS and other key national systems.”
The Minister also expressed concern that some private hospitals had been reluctant to share data.
She said health service officials continued to encounter challenges in fulfilling Ireland’s obligation under EU statistical regulations.
“The objective of this regulation is to provide internationally comparable data on healthcare facilities, resources and utilisation, and thereby offering a transparent and accessible view of the broader healthcare system,” she said.
“However, while there is now good engagement with the majority of private hospitals in this regard, it has taken us 18 months to get to this point and, even still, not all have confirmed their willingness to share the data required with my department in order for Ireland to fully comply with this EU Regulation. This is completely unacceptable.”
