HomeJuly 2013President's Message

President’s Message

A strategic five year plan for the HMI

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased and very honoured to be elected President of the Health Management Institute of Ireland and I would like to thank my colleagues on the Council for placing their confidence in me. I would also like to welcome Geraldine Regan who has been appointed as Vice President of the Institute and we look forward to working effectively together over our term of office.

Derek Greene, President, HMI
Derek Greene, President, HMI

I would also like to thank the outgoing President, Richie Dooley and the outgoing Council for their hard work and commitment to developing the Institute.  We are all particularly grateful to Richie Dooley for the enthusiasm and dedication he brought to his term of office, the developments he fostered and his wise guidance at all times.

As President, my first action will be to work with Council to review the Institute’s work and to draw up a strategic plan for the next five years.  This review will cover membership, regional structures and professional development and will, I hope,  place our Institute strategically at the heart of all that is good in healthcare.

In our changing health service, managers need as never before the resource of a  professional organisation – an organisation which will support them, bring them the latest national and international thinking and best practice, keep them up to date with policies and developments and examine and respond to the challenges and changes of the day. Conversely our Managers must be well trained, critical thinkers who believe in the delivery of a quality health service within an agreed financial framework.

Therefore, my first priority will be to increase our membership.  We intend to launch a membership drive throughout the country because a strong Institute is a powerful Institute. In line with this, we will be developing our regional structures, which have been a strong feature of our work in the last 12 months.

Two other areas to which I am committed are the professional development of health service managers and the development of good governance systems.

Good managers need to be properly trained and educated because the best structures and systems in the world will not function appropriately unless there is strong and effective management there to solve problems and design and deliver quality service.

On effective governance I believe we need to look at the implications for managers throughout the system.  We need to focus not only on structures.  We need to ask what does good governance mean and how do we know we are providing safe and appropriate service in the face of a  decreasing budgets and with less staff.

I look forward to working with all health service managers over my term of office and to continue the development of our Institute. If there are any concerns or issues you may wish to raise please feel free to contact me at Derek.greene@nrh.ie

Derek Greene,

President, HMI