There are a number of risks to the successful delivery of NSP 2017, according to HSE Director General, Tony O’Brien. Maureen Browne reports.
He said that while every effort would be made to manage these risks, it might not be possible to eliminate them in full and they might impact on planned levels of service delivery or achievement of targeted performance.
He said particular management focus would be required to mitigate risk in the following areas:
• Increased demand for services beyond the funded levels
• Meeting the level of changing needs and emergency placements in disability services, supporting complex paediatric discharges within primary care and responding to increasing levels of demand for acute hospital unscheduled care services
• Regulatory requirements in public long-stay residential care facilities, the disability sector, mental health and hospital services which must be responded to within the limits of the revenue and capital funding available
• Control over pay and staff numbers at the same time as managing specific safety, regulatory, demand and practice driven pressures while seeking to ensure recruitment and retention of a highly skilled and qualified workforce, particularly in high-demand areas and specialties
• Managing within the limitations of the HSE’s clinical, business information, financial and HR systems to support an information driven health service
• Managing the scale of change required to support new models of service delivery and structures while supporting innovation
• The capacity to invest in and maintain its infrastructure and address critical risks resulting from ageing medical equipment and physical infrastructure
• The HSE’s ability to meet the demand for new drug approvals within funded levels
• The scale of financial management required within Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) in line with the numbers availing of schemes, including medical cards.
