The four new HSE Regional Directors of Performance and Integration (RDPIs) will ultimately be the face of the new Healthcare Commissioning Agency. Maureen Browne reports.
The four new HSE Regional Directors of Performance and Integration, who will replace the former Regional Directors of Operations will ultimately be the face of the new Healthcare Commissioning Agency, serving as commissioning/contract managers.
In the meantime, they will take over the roles of the previous Regional Directors of Operations (RDOs) and, according to the HSE, “will be critical to managing performance across hospital and community services, ensuring integration across hospital and community services and supporting the work of the Regional Health Fora.”
The HSE is implementing new structures which will mean operational responsibility and accountability transferring to the newly appointed National Directors for Acute, Primary Care, Social Care, Mental Health and Health and Wellbeing services, through hospital groups and equivalent primary care. The HSE says the Regions will continue to have an important role in the organisation of the health system.
“Implementation of these changes will require explicit transitional governance and management arrangements and RDOs will retain operational responsibility for services during the transition and until alternative structures, i.e. Hospital Groups and equivalent Primary Care/Community structures, are put in place,” according to the HSE.
RDPIs will undertake routine reviews of the health delivery system to ensure that targets are being met and that service planning and cost containment priorities are being delivered within their region.
The new HSE RDPIs are pegged at Assistant National Director Level. They are whole-time appointments for a period of three years. They are expected to give leadership and direction and will represent the Chief Operating Officer and National Directors in the regions.
They will report directly to the Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Laverne McGuinness, who has responsibility for the overall performance management, performance assurance and integration of the health system.
The RDPIs are expected to work in partnership with the Head of Planning and Performance to implement the new performance management and assurance processes.
In addition they are expected to have strong working relationships with the National Directors of Acute; Primary Care; Social Care; Mental Health and Health & Wellbeing in their role in the performance management and accountability framework for the organisation.
As Hospital Groups and equivalent Primary Care/Community service areas may not be coterminous with the existing HSE Regions, the RDPIs will be assigned responsibility for specific Groups/Areas even if these cross regional boundaries.
The HSE says the RDPIs will support the COO in ensuring that the health system is operationally performance managed in an integrated way. The will be charged with ensuring that quality, safety and access and financial targets are delivered across the health services in their regions and that dependencies are managed across sectors.
RDPIs will undertake routine reviews of the health delivery system to ensure that targets are being met and that service planning and cost containment priorities are being delivered within their region. They will have responsibility for ensuring the stability of the healthcare system during the implementation of the Government reform programme with a primary focus on driving performance and delivery.
As the ‘contract/commissioning manager’ at regional level, the RDPIs will work with the COO and the National Directors as part of the annual service planning cycle and will be directly accountable for performance monitoring and performance assurance within their regions and across care groups. The role is central to the HSE’s approach to performance monitoring, management and improvement.
