Impact slams failed health action plans

James Reilly, the health minister, has been accused of failing to implement 18 of 20 actions on health reform which were due to be in place by April, Impact trade union has claimed.

A “scorecard” produced by the union yesterday at its health and welfare divisional conference in Portlaoise, said 12 out of 20 actions promised by the end of March have yet to be implemented, another six came late, while just two were implemented on time.

It said: “The missed implementation dates relate to measures necessary to facilitate the introduction of universal health insurance by 2016. They include steps towards the creation of new hospital groups and primary care structures, the assessment of the role of local hospitals, the development of new approaches to staff planning and succession, and the establishment of new financial management systems to enable ‘money to follow patients’.”

The union said ministerial plans for health service reform were launched with a fanfare in November through the Strategic Framework for Reform in the Health Service 2012-2015 but the plans were “flawed from the start”.

Impact’s national secretary, Louise O’Donnell, said: “They are incapable of delivering value for money and he [Dr Reilly] chose the wrong model for universal health insurance. But even on his own terms, the implementation record so far suggests that he’s unlikely to deliver universal health insurance.”

Impact collated its scorecard by measuring 20 “future health” actions due to be implemented by April against responses it received after it wrote to the Department of Health to get information on how the measures were progressing.

The union says the health minister’s chosen model for universal health insurance is unlikely either to deliver value for money or universal access to healthcare.

Meanwhile, a rush to create independent hospital trusts was putting patient safety and service quality at risk.

The union called on Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, to take urgent action to address a shortage of social workers which, it said, is under-mining the State’s statutory obligation to protect children and threatens to thwart the effectiveness of the Children and Families Agency.

Union official Christina Carney said there were 350 social worker vacancies. In one region, a quarter of social work posts are unfilled.

She called on Ms Fitzgerald to accelerate recruitment to vacant posts and immediately establish an emergency relief panel with a view to filling maternity leave positions, as she said the situation was now becoming “unsafe”.