Gloster to tell PAC there are 'many positive aspects' to care at UHL

The HSE chief executive is set to tell the committee that there will be 'no future requirement' for a repeat of the recruitment embargo introduced within the HSE in late 2023

Bernard Gloster said: 'We are absolutely determined to overcome the challenges that are experienced there (at UHL), particularly at the point of emergency access.' File picture: Arthur Ellis.

The head of the HSE says there are “many positive aspects” to the care delivered at University Hospital Limerick, despite the record overcrowding which has blighted the hospital’s emergency department.

Bernard Gloster is set to tell the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday of his “concern” that the balance regarding the things UHL does well "often loses out to an either/or view, good or bad”.

UHL has been at the centre of many negative headlines in recent years as it has been one of the worst performers in terms of patients on trolleys awaiting treatment.

That negativity is exemplified by the case of Aoife Johnston, the 16-year-old Leaving Cert student who lost her life to meningitis after being left for more than 13 hours without antibiotics upon presenting at UHL with the symptoms of sepsis in December 2022.

“Again, I stress that there are many positive aspects and strengths to the services in UHL,” Mr Gloster will tell the PAC at a meeting convened to consider delays to the HSE’s new integrated financial management system.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

“We are absolutely determined to overcome the challenges that are experienced there (at UHL), particularly at the point of emergency access,” Mr Gloster will say.

A recent report into the emergency department at UHL found that the 130 separate recommendations that staff were being asked to implement in order to improve conditions there, while "admirable", did not represent a realistic reform programme.

Recruitment freeze

Meanwhile on ongoing staffing concerns within the health service, the chief executive is set to tell the committee that there will be “no future requirement” for a repeat of the recruitment embargo introduced within the HSE in late 2023, a hiatus which has been sharply criticised by unions and staff alike.

That embargo was introduced on foot of a budget shortfall of €1.3bn implemented by the Government after years of consistent overspend by the health service. Mr Gloster will tell the committee that the cash management of the HSE “is now more clearly set out and aligned to planned expenditure than it has been for some time”.

He will say that the implementation of the HSE’s pay and numbers strategy has resulted in “a better control environment” within the health service. That strategy has likewise come in for criticism from unions, particularly in terms of its provision that all unfilled recruitment positions as at the end of December 2023 were rendered obsolete.

Financial system

Regarding the HSE’s integrated financial management system, Mr Gloster will tell the PAC that the system is broadly on target for its first go-live date of April 2025, after several years of delays. The IFMS was first proposed for the HSE on foot of so much of its expenditure being unvouchable despite the requirement that all public expenditure go to official tender.

Last month the Comptroller and Auditor General reported that the costs of the IFMS had risen by over €40m since the initial estimates for the system were proposed in 2015. The original completion date for the project was September 2019, meaning the system will be close to six years overdue by the time it finally becomes fully operational.