Questions for HSE on Effective Management

Hospital Boards are supposed to order policy to direct the Chief Executive

in the management of the institution. In Public Hospitals, the Minister for

Health is responsible for Board appointments even if some members are

nominees of Unions, Medical, Nursing or other staff, medical school or

university interests.

With the proliferation of staff at higher grades in the HSE in general since

its establishment, has an independent Lean Study on the administration ever

been commissioned?

Has the Department of Heath ordered the HSE to carry out such a study or

made a policy decision that this should happen?

Does the Croke Park agreement with the Trade Unions mean that there will be

no possible redundancies until after 2014 which would make the results of

Lean Studies impossible to implement? With the manpower freeze, it would

also make appropriate reform very difficult.

PS. I wrote to the Chairman of Beaumont Hospital Board Mr O’Shea on this

subject last year but never received a reply. What a surprise? I will now

ensure that Mr O’Shea and his counterparts on the Boards of every hospital

within the ambit of HSE Dublin and Northeast Forum address this issue in the

future.

Putting patients first is important. To ensure that this is the case,

targeting spending most effectively is our duty in the political arena.