I am delighted to welcome you to the first electronic Health Manager, which I hope you will find interesting, informative and easy to navigate.
As HMI President, Denis Doherty says, we are really pleased that it will allow us to introduce new features and enable us to have rapid two way communication with our readers.
This issue contains the first comprehensive view of what health managers think about the recent health reforms. A collaborative study carried out by the HMI and the Health Systems Research Centre at the University of Limerick reveals managers’ views of what has improved, disimproved or shown little or no change over the last five years and concludes that an early review of the role of management and leadership style, in the HSE in particular, is required.
In a wide-ranging interview, Michael Scanlan, the Secretary General of the Department of Health & Children says that what is needed in the Irish health services now is the hard slog of implementation rather than big ideas, He says we need better information on how money is being spent, on the people working in the services, where they are working and on activities, outputs and outcomes.
We report on the latest HMI Forum in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin where health managers raised a wide range of concerns including centralisation, working in silos, increasing paperwork, resource allocation and differences between patients’ and providers’ priorities.
Cora McGaughan, Chairperson, Healthcare Risk Managers Forum explains why the HRMF incorporation into the HMI heralds the dawning of an exciting era of dialogue and debate.
At this time of the year, it’s a good idea to take an inward critical glance at yourself and what you want from your career and your personal life, advises shrc management consultant Keith McCarthy who also details upcoming HMI accredited courses.
As always, apologies to those whose articles were held over but I look forward to including them in the next issue and do let me know what you think of our new electronic Health Manager. You can email me to maureen@hmi.ie
Maureen Browne
Editor
