HSE advisers called for ‘quick wins’

A GROUP set up to advise the Health Service Executive (HSE) on reconfiguration of hospital services in the South emphasised the need for “positive media management” and “quick wins” that demonstrated the benefits of reconfiguration.

The advisory board, whose existence was kept under wraps for 10 months, also emphasised the need for “pleasant persistence” to encourage staff to buy into “culture change” brought about by reconfiguration.

The various strategies of the board, which first met last September, are outlined in minutes of its meetings which also show that three board members – horse trainer Aidan O’Brien, president of University College Cork, Dr Michael Murphy, and Prof Gerry O’Sullivan, director of Cork Cancer research centre – were unable to attend any of the board’s first five meetings.