Reilly: HSE change will improve service

THE Government has moved to take back direct control of the health service by overhauling the board of the Health Service Executive (HSE) ahead of the promised dismantling of the executive.

The current HSE board members told Health Minister James Reilly yesterday that they were willing to go, a move which he said would shorten the chain of command in health services.

Dr Reilly’s appointment of an interim new board will be seen as a bid to rid the HSE of management with links to the former government and former Health Minister Mary Harney.

But the opposition argued that patients wanted policies, not personalities, with claims the new board’s remit under the minister would lead to a downgrading of hospitals.

Outgoing board members would receive no severance packages, said the minister, and current HSE board chairman, Frank Dolphin, would remain on, overseeing 11 new board members and a smooth transition of HSE responsibilities to the Department of Health.

In the Programme for Government, agreed with coalition partners Labour, the HSE is to be scrapped.

Dr Reilly said he hoped legislation will be in place by the end of the year to scrap the board structure and he had taken “routine advice” from the Attorney General on the action.

“It will be very clear that the Minister for Health will have direct access to the top management of the HSE and the department, in a unified fashion, will be far more responsible for healthcare and will be responsible to the Oireachtas and the people through that mechanism.”

The new board will be made up of top management from the HSE and the department and would ensure greater power is given to the minister.

He said: “I felt that boards were being put in place to put distance between the minister and their responsibilities. And I’m shortening that chain of command with this new change today.

“And I believe this will be for the betterment of patients, to improve services.”

The board will report directly to him on issues like waiting lists and problems in hospitals. Responsibility for answering parliamentary questions will also go back to the department.

“I believe this Government was elected by the people with strong mandate, to have more accountability, to have more ministerial responsibility and not for ministers to hide behind organisations and say ‘well this is not an issue for me,” the health ministers said.

The board, to be appointed in a number of weeks, will also not get director expenses.

Dr Reilly said the resignations of the board was not a reflection on individual board members, who had given great public service.

HSE board member Eugene McCague had earlier in the week written to Dr Reilly offering to resign.

Other board members include Pat Farrell, chief executive of the Irish Banking Federation; Niamh Brennan, professor of management at UCD; Sylda Langford, former director general of the Office of the Minister for Children and John Fitzgerald, former Dublin city manager.

All current HSE board members were appointed by former Health Minister Mary Harney.

But Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher questioned the board change, saying: “The remit of the board is the key question here, not the personalities on it.”