Monthly Archives: March, 2011

Clarity needed on Government Programme for National Recovery

Ms. Pat O’Boyle, who has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Dublin Dental University Hospital.

Ms. Phil O’Neill has been appointed Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Charter Medical in Smithfield in Dublin, where she is responsible for the development of the complex.

The HSE has appointed Mr. Robert Morton as Director and Dr. Cathal O’Donnell as Medical Director of the National Ambulance Service.

A health technology assessment of robot-assisted keyhole surgery is to be carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority. Following a request from the HSE, HIQA has agreed to undertake the assessment of the use of the robotic technology for a range of different types of surgery.

The HSE has announced details of the 15 candidate colonoscopy units that have been initially selected to provide the colonoscopy requirements to Ireland’s first national population-based colorectal cancer screening programme. It states that the remaining units will focus on patients who are referred with symptoms.

The overnight unplanned exit of over 2,000 staff last December allied to the earlier incentivised retirement and redundancy schemes and the staff moratorium has left the Irish health services reeling, with some services in jeopardy, senior managers double jobbing, and hospitals scrambling to find administrative staff to run Emergency Departments and clinics, writes Maureen Browne

Health Minister, Dr. James Reilly has groundbreaking proposals to introduce free primary care, end the two tier system of hospital care, ring-fence funding for mental health and implement a major capital development programme, but there is little or no indication of the cost of these or where this money is to be found, writes Maureen Browne.

I am impressed with the level of engagement on the ‘Croke Park’ deal, with the pace of changes, with the response of staff, with the many millions in savings achieved to-date and then with the enormity of the further agenda being taken on with confidence, writes Pat Harvey

Even if every element of the health action plans drawn up on foot of the Croke Park Agreement is implemented in full, it will only provide a partial response to the problems in the health sector, says David Begg.

It is clear that the Government’s continued support of the Public Service Agreement is contingent on ongoing delivery of the challenging changes required, but it is worth noting that without the Agreement the possibility of reform is negligible with the real possibility of a gradual descent into industrial unrest, writes Ann Marie Ward

The country’s first comprehensive web enabled tool - Health Intelligence Ireland – which has been developed by the HSE’s National Intelligence Unit, will assist health managers and policy makers to rapidly and simply inform their decision making on the most appropriate location for staff and services, writes Maureen Browne

In May 2011, the Medical Council launches a new system to support doctors in maintaining their professional competence throughout their professional lives. President of the Medical Council, Professor Kieran C. Murphy and Dr Paul Kavanagh, Head of Professional Competence at the Medical Council, explain the implications for health managers

The future will see a paradigm shift to individualised assessment of need and support with ring-fenced individualised funding, thereby transferring the balance of power from the service provider to the person with intellectual disability and their families, writes Breda Crehan-Roche

Deirdre Garvey takes an inside look at the Irish community and voluntary sector.

In a consultation process commenced last autumn, the Department of Health in the UK proposed that the NHS should be evaluated based on an outcomes framework structured around five high-level outcome domains, writes Conor Hannaway

Training your staff in safer manual handling has never been so easy with the recent launch of ‘Manual handling in the workplace’ training DVD,...

Keith McCarthy explains how health service managers can predict the gaps that exist in their teams in terms of balanced team dynamic, recognition of strengths and also how to close gaps in the team profile.