Yearly Archives: 2016

It was a reality, but not necessarily a bad one, that politicians and managers sometimes took different views on how something might be done and the time and resources required to do it, Minister of State, Helen McEntee T.D., said when she opened the HMI 6th Annual Conference in the RDS.

Ireland was not doing too badly in spending on healthcare – it was now in the eighth position in the OECD, behind the US, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and France. Dr. Brian Turner, Lecturer in Economics, University College, Cork, told the Conference.

Germany’s health service challenges centred not on a shortage of services but rather an over-supply of services, Dr. Josef Dullings President of the German Association of Hospital Managers (VKD) and CEO, Hospitals of Saint Vincenz, Paderborn, Germany told the Conference.

Healthcare professionals need professionalisation and the International Hospital Federation is creating a web based platform which will allow healthcare professionals to assess themselves, Eric de Roodenbeke, Director General of the IHF told the Conference.

If you looked at national initiatives in the NHS in England over recent years you would see a big imbalance in strategy towards control and away from improvement and planning, Dr. Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive, Health Foundation UK, told the Conference.

The management of the health services was a constant series of choices, whether in the allocation of funds for the purchase of an innovative medicine or the provision of extra home care packages, there was only a finite resource that was far outweighed by demand, Mr. Liam Cullen, Director of External Affairs and Public Policy, GSK told the Conference.

Moving to 100% electronic general referral will result in a saving of €2.6 million a year, Richard Corbridge, Chief Information Officer HSE and Chief Executive Officer eHealth Ireland and Ms. Gemma Garvan - HSE told the Conference.

There were wonderful innovative health projects being pioneered all over the country and health care managers should encourage their colleagues and staff to enter these for the annual HMI Leaders Awards, Denis Doherty HMI Council Member and Chair of the HMI Leaders Award 2016 National Adjudication Panel, told the Conference.

Drawing on her own experience as a patient and advocate, author and writer, Lia Mills provided the Conference with a personal perspective on the importance of the values of compassion and respect for patients.

Healthcare managers’ lives involved a stressful balancing act, recognising the workload and stress on their staff on the one hand and trying to balance that with the amount of support and control they could put in place on the other, Professor Jim Lucey, Medical Director at St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at TCD, told the Conference.

Women’s entry into leadership was impeded by gendered division of labour, gender bias/misrecognition, management and masculinity and greedy organisations, Prof. Anne Scott, Professor and Vice President for Equality and Diversity, National University of Ireland, Galway, told the Conference.

Research showed that during 2009 one in eight patients in Irish hospitals experienced adverse events at an estimated annual cost of €194 million (excluding legal costs), which was 4% of healthcare budget. Prof. Oscar Traynor, Director, National Surgical Training Centre and Professor of Postgraduate Surgical Education at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, told the Conference.

Choices to be made by managers

Health Minister, Simon Harris will deliver the opening address at this year’s HMI National Conference which will be held in The Concert Hall at the RDS, Dublin on Thursday September 29 next.

HSE holds second staff survey Sod turning for the new Children’s Hospital Minister opens Temple Street Extended ED Breaches of waiting targets Increase in patients treated in 2015 GPs can now refer electronically to acute hospitals Different qualities of life for residents with disabilities Overview Report of Disability Inspections National Standards for Bereavement Care HSE HR awarded excellence certification New Hybrid Cardiac Catheterisation Patient hotel proposed New Drogheda Psychiatric Unit Counsellors and psychotherapists New charges from next January HSE Response to Áras Attracta Report New CORU Chair No second cardiac cath lab for UHW Over 1,800 patients participating in HRB research trials New memorandum of understanding Understaffing driving doctors abroad HIQA endorses patient record model Significant increase in infectious syphilis in Cork

A project which resulted in a reduction in the number of babies receiving blood transfusions in the Rotunda Hospital Dublin, was a finalist in the HMI overall Leaders award. Maureen Browne reports.

In 2012 WALK, a community and voluntary organisation supporting adults with intellectual disabilities, wanted to find a way to ensure that its values were reflected in the everyday actions of its staff, writes Austin O’Sullivan.

All the examples and analogies much used by politicians the globe over come to mind when trying to describe why we need a digital fabric to support health care delivery in Ireland. Nowadays, Uber is the watch word for digitisation and disruption of a market place. Airbnb is wheeled out as another clear example of a change inspired by a disruption; can health care really be changed in a similar way? Of course it can, write Richard Corbridge and Maria O’laughlin.

Sweeping changes are to be introduced to the HSE Leadership including the appointment of four new National Directors, with the operations roles of a number of existing National Directors subsumed into the new posts - and new reporting arrangements. Maureen Browne reports.

The new leadership changes reform the “centre” to establish a new way of working, which could be characterised as a ‘noses in, fingers out culture’ as between the “commissioning” and service delivery parts of the health service according to HSE Director General, Tony O’Brien. Maureen Browne reports.