A strong and clear voice for the HMI
It is with some trepidation I write my first President’s message as the 19th President of HMI as I follow in the footsteps of esteemed past presidents, most recently Derek Greene. On behalf of the Council and members of HMI I wish to thank Derek for his tireless commitment to developing the Institute along with relentless good humour! I would also like to acknowledge the work of two council members Breda Crehan-Roche and Pat O’Boyle who recently stepped down from Council and wish them both well in their new endeavours. I am joined by Lorcan Birthistle (CEO of St. James’s Hospital) who was elected Vice-President at the recent AGM and I look forward to working with him and fellow Council members in building on the firm foundation that Derek has established.
We are currently at an advanced stage in planning our 4th annual conference which takes place on Thursday September 29 in the RDS. The theme this year is “Getting It Right – making the best choices” and we have an exciting line of both national and international speakers (for more details check our news section) and booking is now open.
My first official event as President was the Leadership Awards final which was not only an honour but an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the innovative developments in healthcare delivery. This event has gone from strength to strength with the number of submissions increasing year on year. I was impressed by the standard of all the finalists and it demonstrates some of the excellent work in healthcare and a rare opportunity to celebrate given the pressures currently being experienced in the health service.
HMI aims to Educate, Inform and Involve health managers and I intend to build on these three pillars during my term of office. I encourage members to get involved and would welcome your feedback and ideas as any professional association is only as vibrant, current, informed and relevant as its collective membership
Over the past three years we have organised and delivered three major national conferences, reorganised our organisational structure, established Regional Manager Forums and hosted both national and international speakers to address us on key health service issues. In parallel we have reorganised our membership structure, created new membership levels with attractive associated benefits and forged a number of significant sponsorship arrangements which directly support the work we do and have moved Health Manager to an e-zine format for ease of access and information on the go.
All of the aforementioned have taken considerable time and work to deliver and I would like to place on record my personal thanks to each member of Council who have worked so hard on your behalf. I would also like to thank Ann Marie O’Grady and Maureen Browne for producing Health Manager and Conor Hanaway, Rosemarie Carroll and Ryan McInnes from SHRC, our strategic partners, for their organisational skills, commitment and expertise in supporting all the work we do. Also GSK who have worked very closely with us over the past three years and who have sponsored all our annual conference and supported our regional events.
The HMI is a membership organisation and we have put in place the necessary organisational infrastructure to enable it to flourish but we are only as good and as strong as our membership base. We have put considerable work into this area but we must rely on each and every health service manager to support us and join our organisation. In times of great change and uncertainty in our sector, it is vital that the HMI has its finger on the pulse, has a strong and clear voice and most importantly it must be supported by a wide, diverse and vibrant membership base.
Your Council and I have worked extremely hard on getting the infrastructure in place, it is up to each and every one of us as members of the HMI to actively participate in our organisation’s activities and development, and to encourage new and the next generation of health care managers to join it.
