Yearly Archives: 2014

Happy Christmas to health service staff

Past approaches to managing absenteeism have met with only limited success, but there are better ways by validating the learning from projects that have been successful to inform new approaches, writes Denis Doherty.

Irish President of EAHM New HMI Vice President Hospital Group CEOs New Deputy Chief Nursing Officers HSE Head of Compliance HSE Chief Information Officer Rehab CEO HIQA Acting CEO NSAI Accreditation Paper light hospital New children’s hospital Joint EU negotiations for medicines Demand up but electives down Dublin cancer institute Ex-gratia symphysiotomy payments How healthy are Irish people? Assisted human reproduction International evaluation of cancer strategy New medical indemnity laws

The new nine Community Healthcare Organisations, which are to be established will consist of 90 Primary Care Networks, each of which provides services to approximately 50,000 people. Maureen Browne reports.

Trying to work out when a budget increase is an increase, a continuation of the status quo or a decrease has become one of the more complex modern pastimes, particularly for those of us without financial, accountancy or actuarial qualifications, writes Maureen Browne.

From 2016 onwards, all pharma companies operating in Europe will publish details of any transfer of value that occurs between a company and a health care professional or organisation, writes Aidan Lynch.

Former Irish health chief, Prof. Martin Connor believes our health system may be at an inflection point where a combination of internal and contextual factors are progressively limiting its leadership’s room for manoeuvre to safely deliver the final phase of fiscal consolidation envisaged by published government spending plans to 2016. Maureen Browne reports.

The Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Bill 2013 marks a move away from a paternalistic decision making approach for people seen to have impaired mental capacity to supporting their will and preferences, Dr. Piers Gooding told a meeting of the HMI West region. Maureen Browne reports.

The over-riding principle in relation to all three categories of persons covered by the Bill is that a person is presumed to have decision making capacity unless the contrary is proved otherwise, write Tom Carney and Sinéad O’Loghlin.

The National Newborn Bloodspot Screening Programme, based in Temple Street Children’s University Hospital can now produce a single, consistent electronic record for each infant, writes David Wall.

The Nursing and Midwifery workforce nationwide has made a significant contribution at both clinical and national strategic level to the progression of the National Clinical Programmes, thus improving patient care whilst also meeting the objectives of the HSE, writes Prof. Geraldine Shaw.

The need for inspiring and professional manager leaders, the importance of sound governance and the challenge of providing services at a time of reducing budgets and increasing demand were the main themes of the 2014 HMI National Conference, writes Maureen Browne.

Managing expectations was the biggest challenge for managers in the Irish health service, Minister of State at the Department of Health, Ms. Kathleen Lynch, T.D., said when she gave the opening address to the Conference.

A different health future based on five major changes was urged by Ms. Francesca Colombo, Head of Health Division, OECD, when she opened the session on the “Context for Change,” which was chaired by HMI President, Mr. Derek Greene.

The deafening silence on the funding of health and care must be challenged, Mr. Leo Kearns, HSE National Lead for Transformation & Change told the Conference.

A survey of health managers and senior policy makers last January revealed a big difference between healthcare priorities and the areas on which they were actually spending their time, Dr. Sarah Barry, Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Policy and Management at Trinity College, Dublin told the Conference.

More and more top performing hospitals in the US have doctors in leadership positions, not because they are better managers but because they are in a unique position to engage with patients and colleagues, Dr. Colm Henry, National Clinical Advisor and Programme Lead for Acute Hospitals told the Conference.

Health managers had the most important and most difficult job in Ireland, Dr. Siobhan O’Halloran, Chief Nursing Officer, Department of Health told the Conference.

Through its collaboration with the HMI, GSK had gained a great insight into the challenges which managers in the health service faced, Ms. Eimear Caslin, Commercial Director GSK, told the Conference.

To develop a successful team you had to earn respect, set standards, make demands and treat the team with respect, Mr. Brian Cody, Manager, Kilkenny Senior Hurling Team told the Conference.