Integration team to replace hospitals chief

THE man who headed up the National Hospitals Office has been replaced by a team of four people to help integrate hospital services.

John O’Brien, director of the National Hospitals Office (NHO), is to revert to his previous role as an advisor to HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm.

The four-person team, who have been temporarily reassigned from their HSE posts, will be headed up by Ann Doherty, national director of corporate planning and control processes and, according to the HSE: “Ann will lead a senior cross-discipline team to support the NHO management team in advancing the area of integrated care within and between directorates”.

The cross-discipline team will include Barry O’Brien, HSE assistant national director, human resources; Maureen Cronin, assistant national director, finance and Phil Shovlin, general manager of the CEO’s office. Ms Doherty will be responsible for the overall governance and activities of the NHO.

The team is seen as part of a drive to speed up progress in creating greater integration of care between community and hospital services.

Previously, the development of community services was driven solely by the Primary, Community and Continuing Care directorate of the HSE, while the NHO had responsibility for hospitals.

The attempt to improve integration could be seen as a tacit admission that allowing the two directorates to function separately was not ideal.

Prof Drumm said work “was well-advanced on identifying what organisational provisions would be needed” to achieve greater integration between the various directorates and “would shortly be the subject of wider consultation”.

Meanwhile, Mr O’Brien, originally seconded from St James’s Hospital as one of Prof Drumm’s advisors, will resume his role alongside Maureen Lynott, director of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, who advises Prof Drumm on performance measurement and value for money; Karl Anderson, communications advisor and Tommie Martin, formerly of Comhairle na nOspidéal, and now director of the office of the chief executive officer at the HSE.