HMI Annual Conference
It is amazing how quickly time passes, and now with over half of the year gone it is that time once again when our annual conference is launched. The title for this year’s event is ‘CHANGE for the better’ and it will be held in the RDS on Wednesday September 30, 2015. I would encourage you to diary the date and to prioritise your attendance at the event.
This year’s conference focuses on quality healthcare delivery and the lessons learned from recent events in our health service, most notably around the problems of providing optimal safe and timely care and compassion in our health services as amplified in the report into Portlaoise Hospital. We are also focusing around ‘innovation’ in our health services and the development of an integrated care pathway as a methodology by which service improvements and quality can be raised.
As usual we have lined up a stellar team of distinguished national and international speakers for our conference and we very much look forward to having your company with us on the day. As in previous years the event is very keenly priced, to ensure cost is not an impediment to attendance and we very much want to have representatives of health service managers from every healthcare facility and service throughout the country at the event.
As you will also be aware the Institute launched the HMI Leaders’ Award in 2014 and the event drew much interest, and many excellent submissions were received with the eventual joint winners coming from HSE South and HSE Dublin North East. This year, our second year, following regional qualifications the final was held on July 7, 2015. The overall winner was Alison Dougall from Dublin Dental University Hospital for her project “Promoting improved access to dental care for people living with haemophilia in Ireland and encouraging a culture of oral health promotion within the teams that treat them”. Congratulations to Alison, as once again the judging panel commented on the high quality of the projects submitted. The innovation that goes on in our health service on a daily basis that often goes unnoticed and unrecognised.
The Institute decided to introduce the HMI Leaders’ Award to give recognition to the work and to the individuals who do it. We hope that the award will become a major feature and focal point of recognition for health service staff moving forwards, to prioritise much of the good work and innovation which occurs in the health service.
Our thanks to all our colleagues who organised this very professional event and to our judging panel:
- Eamonn Fitzgerald, (Chair), HMI Council Member and Chief Executive, Hermitage Medical Clinic
- Leo Kearns, National Lead for Transformation and Change, Office of the Director General, HSE
- Suzanne Dempsey, Director of Nursing, Children’s Hospital Group
- Eileen Dunne, Newscaster, Board Member, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Fairview, Dublin
- Eva Lindgren, Medical Director/Chief Scientific Officer, Novartis Ireland Ltd
- Ian Maguire, Head of Human Resources, St. Michael’s Hospital (part of the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group)
I look forward to seeing you all at our annual conference.
Derek Greene
HMI President
