Harney: No magic wand to fix health service

AN embattled Mary Harney yesterday insisted she has no magic wand for radically overhauling the health service but signalled new hospital consultants could be appointed within weeks.

Following protracted talks on new procedures, pay, terms and conditions for consultants, Ms Harney claimed the situation could not continue and warned that “time is running out”.

A deal, she said, should be brokered before Christmas.

“We now want to proceed and recruit new consultants. It has to be on the basis of a new contract of employment,” she said. “If the consultant bodies accept those recommendations, not just in theory but actually in spirit, then there’s no reason why we can’t proceed between now and Christmas.”

The minister warned if agreement is not reached then recruitment will begin in any case: “I am confident that we will be recruiting new consultants on the basis of new contracts beginning over the next number of weeks.”

However, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said in a statement last night that it had become “patently obvious” the State is determined not to agree a negotiated contract. It also said leading consultants are in the process of resigning from the public system.

“It [the Government] believes that it can successfully implement its reform programme with consultants on two different types of contract. With the best will in the world, that will not work and so her reform plans are doomed to failure,” the statement said.

Ms Harney defended the health service, while insisting it is in the middle of a major transformation.

“I said at the start of my time in the Department of Health three years ago that there is no magic wand. We weren’t going to be able to switch a light and suddenly transform the health service. It was going to take time.

“I believe huge progress is being made and we are in the difficult process of transformation that doesn’t come easily to anyone.”

A recent survey showed 53% of the public think the health system is getting worse, but Ms Harney insisted the public perception, based on media reports and analysis, was very different to the patient experience.

Lansdowne Market Research recently found high levels of public satisfaction with 90% satisfaction rates in some areas, she said.

The minister also said that fundamental improvements had been made in A&E services and breast cancer survival rates had increased by 7%.