Damien McCallion, HSE National Director Emergency Management and National Ambulance Service, has been elected to the role of Director General for the CAWT Partnership. Damien has served as a CAWT Board Member for over three years.
He replaces Tom Daly’s, who retired from the HSE and stepped down as Director General of the CAWT Partnership in July 2017,
Tom was actively involved in the establishment and growth of the CAWT Partnership since its inception in 1992. For example, over the last 13 years there have been two significant INTERREG funding programmes (IIIA and IVA) which ran consecutively. Both programmes included a cross border health theme and significantly improved access to health and social care for our border populations.
In the 2003 to 2008 period of the INTERREG IIIA programme, a total of €10.45 million was invested in cross border health via CAWT. In the 2009 to 2015 period of the INTERREG IVA programme, €30 million has been allocated to the CAWT Partnership for cross border health and social care initiatives.
In 2017 the CAWT Partnership celebrated 25 years in existence and was awarded a grant up to a total value of €26.5 million of EU INTERREG VA funding which is being used to support four large-scale cross border health and social care projects up to 2021. The projects are in the areas of acute hospital services, mental health, children’s services and community health and well-being. A fifth project is being led by NHS Scotland and is in the area of primary care and older people’s services.
The CAWT Partnership is an active participant in this Scottish led Project which has secured grant funding of up to €5.5 million. These projects will directly benefit people living in Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic of Ireland and will be implemented between now and 2021.
Strategic issues for the CAWT Partnership are:
- Building and maintaining relationship with key stakeholders such as the three Departments of Health (the EU INTERREG VA eligible area).
- Supporting the work of the North South Ministerial Council
- Ensuring the objectives and targets of CAWT’s EU INTERREG VA funded programme of work are achieved.
- Embedding and mainstreaming of CAWT’s EU INTERREG VA funded programme of work
