Experts call for health reform model

TWO leading hospital consultants have called for the establishment of a national forum on healthcare modelled on the lines of social partnership to drive health reform.

John R Higgins, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the UCC department of obstetrics and gynaecology and Cork University Maternity Hospital; and his colleague, Richard A Greene, professor of clinical obstetrics, say change could be achieved with a forum that has cross-party support and includes representatives from all stakeholders akin to social partnership.

“It should be resourced by a secretariat and manned by the best our civil service can provide. It should be time limited. Particular effort should be made to the seek the views of the general public,” said Prof Higgins.

This national consensus approach offered an alternative to the “fractious, divisive, and sensational” nature of the public debate surrounding health service reform, they said.

“Healthcare is such a dominant negative issue in Irish public life it is affecting the national psyche,” said Prof Higgins.

Prof Greene said the continuous negative coverage was sapping staff morale and undermining patients’ confidence in the healthcare system.

Both believe lessons can be learnt from the New Ireland Forum, set up in 1983. “We need a healthcare system that has the patient at the centre, not a healthcare system that talks about being patient centred,” said Prof Higgins.

Prof Higgins said a national consensus would help deal with “numerous industrial relations challenges”, including the need to boost consultant numbers within a staff ceiling. He said an opportunity had been missed when the old health board system was replaced by the HSE, that middle-management posts “should have been freed up” and converted into consultant posts.