Time will tell whether move will improve the care given to patients

THAT the board of the Health Service Executive is no more will come as no surprise to anyone tracking the pronouncements of Dr James Reilly both prior to his becoming Health Minister and since then.

Nor will it raise any eyebrows among those familiar with Fine Gael health policy.

The party has never been an advocate of the HSE. In its Fair Care health policy document launched in April 2009, it described the HSE as “an ill-conceived experiment”. In the same document, Fine Gael promised to make the Minister for Health, “directly responsible” for hitting key targets, if it were in power. The Fine Gael/Labour Programme for Government also set out plans to change the HSE and give the health minister and his department greater responsibility.