Head of HSE's Cork/Kerry community healthcare retires

Mr Fitzgerald’s tenure coincided with a scandal which erupted around child mental health services in the Kerry region in January 2022

Michael Fitzgerald (left) with Micheál Martin in 2020. He said it had been “a great privilege” for him to have led the HSE’s community services in Cork and Kerry during the “difficult times” represented by the covid pandemic. File picture: Gerard McCarthy

The Chief Officer for the HSE's Cork/Kerry community healthcare division has retired with immediate effect.

Michael Fitzgerald informed staff last Thursday that his final work day would be the following day. Mr Fitzgerald took over from Ger Reaney as chief officer following the latter’s retirement at the height of the covid pandemic in June 2020.

He will be replaced on a temporary basis by the HSE’s head of service for health wellbeing and strategy, Gabrielle O’Keeffe, until his permanent successor, chief operating officer at the south/southwest hospital group Tess O’Donovan, takes over at the beginning of May.

In his retirement message, Mr Fitzgerald said it had been “a great privilege” for him to have led the HSE’s community services in Cork and Kerry during the “difficult times” represented by the covid pandemic and the Russian cyberattack which brought the health service to its knees in May 2021.

“The world moves on of course and there are many challenges left in the wake of covid that we now face, including significant waiting lists and demands for new and improved services,” he said.

He said his career had been “marked with the privilege of working beside skilled, talented and committed people for over 40 years and it is humbling for me now to consider some of the great strides that have been made over that period through the persistence and sometimes insistence of yourselves and many staff who have gone before you,” he added.

Aside from the pandemic, Mr Fitzgerald’s tenure as chief officer was perhaps notable for coinciding with a scandal which erupted involving child mental health services in the Kerry region in January 2022.

At the time a report into the sector on foot of a whistleblower’s complaints found that “significant harm” had been caused to 46 children due to medication allegedly being overprescribed by a junior doctor.

Mr Fitzgerald also found himself facing questions regarding the decision, made in June 2021, to close the Owenacurra mental health facility in Midleton.

That decision faced a torrent of local opposition with the effect that Owenacurra remains open almost two years later, albeit with just six of its former complement of 20 residents.

Mr Fitzgerald made the initial decision to close the centre following an unminuted meeting with HSE general manager for Cork-Kerry, Hugh Scully, and its acting head of mental health services for the region, Kevin Morrison, the latter of whom have since moved to other HSE roles.

Last September, Mr Fitzgerald admitted to the Public Accounts Committee that “in ideal circumstances” the residents of Owenacurra would have been moved to purpose-built accommodation.

“In mental health services we don’t have enough of those centres in Cork,” he said.