ABOUT 16,500 more patients were treated in hospitals in the first half of the year than were provided for in the budget, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association annual conference was told.
In her address to the conference on Saturday, the association’s president Dr Margo Wrigley said it was heartening to hear the commitment of Minister for Health James Reilly to the concept of money following the patient in how health service budgets were set.
She said this should mean what it said and not the situation which existed now where doctors and other clinicians were criticised for treating too many patients despite the waiting list problems.
She said that during the Celtic Tiger years when unlimited resources were seemingly available, “money was thrown at problems like mud at a wall in the hope that some would stick”.
“An intellectual laziness addressed perceived problems by building new layers of decision makers remote from patients, doctors and other clinicians. The essence of this bureaucracy is monitoring rather than a clear orientation towards patient care.”
Dr Wrigley called for major reforms in the way health services were delivered and managed. She suggested that any new system should be based on the simple formula of policy starting with the patient.
“To put it another way, focusing on outcomes and not the current preoccupation with process, which should of course follow outcomes, based on patient need and not be an end in its own right.
“In our own case, as consultants, our contracts should facilitate our working to achieve the required patient outcomes and not be purely a means of monitoring. That is, form should follow function, with function being patient care outcomes,” she said.
