THE DECISION by Prof Tom Keane to withdraw from the race to succeed Prof Brendan Drumm as head of the Health Service Executive may also have implications for the filling of his own former post.
The HSE has also been seeking a replacement for Prof Keane as director of the State’s cancer control programme since he returned to Canada earlier this year after his two-year term reorganising cancer services.
Dr Susan O’Reilly, who worked with Prof Keane at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada before he returned to Ireland in 2007, has been the front runner to succeed him as director of cancer control.
She travelled to Ireland in recent weeks and was in talks with the HSE about the terms and conditions which would attach to the job.
However sources close to the process said Dr O’Reilly, a medical oncologist, may be put off the job as a result of Prof Keane’s inability to persuade the HSE board to give him certain guarantees in relation to budgets and other issues were he to succeed Prof Drumm.
Meanwhile, Prof Keane has not yet commented on his decision to withdraw his name from the competition. He was in Ireland last week but has now returned to Canada and could not be reached yesterday.
The HSE said the recruitment process to fill the jobs of chief executive of the HSE and director of its cancer control programme were ongoing.
An Australian health service administrator is now understood to be the key contender for the job of HSE chief.
Prof Keane was seen as Minister for Health Mary Harney’s preferred candidate for chief executive.
Ms Harney signalled last December she would like to see him take over when Prof Drumm’s contract expires in August. But she stressed then she would not be involved in the selection process. “It will be an entirely independent process which the board of the HSE will establish,” she said.
However, the HSE in a statement earlier this month indicated there was some political involvement in the process.