Stephen Donnelly
Ceist:90. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health if he will be reviewing governance structures in public hospitals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23502/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 29 May 2018
Ceisteanna (90)
Freagraí scríofa
Currently, there are seven hospital groups which have responsibility for planning and managing acute hospital services within a specified area. The Groups are presently established on a non-statutory administrative basis. Each Group has an Administrative Board that has a mandate to assist and advise in respect of acute hospital services in the Hospital Group. Management teams are in place for all Hospital Groups. The sole line of executive accountability for the Group CEO is to the National Director for Acute Hospital Services, and they are accountable for their Hospital Groups’ planning and performance under the HSE Accountability Framework. It is also important to note that the majority of Hospital Groups contain a number of voluntary hospitals, which have their origins in varying forms of legal establishment with differing legal corporate governance structures. The relationship between the Group CEO and the voluntary hospitals under their remit is governed exclusively through the Service Level Arrangement entered into between the HSE and each voluntary hospital.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Sláintecare report made a series of important recommendations in relation to health service structures, governance and accountability. This includes the establishment of a governing board for the HSE, the creation of regional bodies to support the delivery of integrated care and enhanced clinical governance and patient safety and quality measures.
I have already signalled my support for the Committee's recommendations in this area and work is already underway that will bring improvements in governance and accountability. Legislation is being drafted to establish a board for the HSE and I hope that this will be enacted this year. An extensive programme of work is underway to embed clinical governance and patient safety in healthcare delivery. This includes the Patient Safety Licensing Bill which is due to go to pre-legislative scrutiny shortly. A public consultation on the geographical alignment of hospital groups and community healthcare organisations has been undertaken as a first step to inform considerations in relation to future health service structures.
Ultimately, the task of identifying the optimal set of health structures and the most appropriate governance, accountability and performance framework for the future health system will be an important stream of work under the Sláintecare programme of reforms. To this end, work on a Sláintecare Implementation plan is advancing in my Department. I expect bring to these proposals to Government in the coming weeks.