New regional health forums to give greater autonomy
Plans for six new regional health forums have been announced by the Minister for Health.
On Wednesday, Minister Simon Harris said the restructuring of the HSE will help deliver key Sláintecare commitments, such as a people-centred health and social care.
The six regional health bodies will have their own budget based on local population needs; and improved accountability and transparency.
Offaly falls into the second region, area B, covering a population of around 1 million people, which is the second largest population grouping under the scheme.
Offaly is grouped together with other midland counties including Laois, Longford, and Westmeath, but also with parts of Dublin South City, Dublin South West, Dublin West, Kildare and West Wicklow.
Hospitals in this region include the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital; Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar; Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise; Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore; Naas General Hospital; Tallaght University Hospital; St James's Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital, Rathgar.
The six regional health areas are based on population data including how people currently access health services, as well as a public consultation.
Minister Harris denied it was a return to the old health boards, but would give greater autonomy to make decisions at a local level. He insisted the new structures would remove layers of managers, but there are no plans at present for a redundancy scheme to reduce staffing levels.
The Health Minister said the new regions will be key to "reforming" the health service.
“Today’s announcement identifies the six regions which will be used in developing structures for the delivery of integrated care. “This will result in clear financial and performance accountability, empower frontline staff and devolve authority from the HSE to the local regions," stated Minister for Health Simon Harris.
“These proposals will help shape the future of healthcare in this country and will give the staff, and more importantly, communities a greater role in the delivery of health.”
The next step is to begin the co-design process. Stakeholders in each of the regional health areas will be invited to contribute to the design of the services for their new regions. Work will also now be undertaken to detail the national and regional organisational design which will be brought back to Government for approval within 12 months.
Once established, these six regional bodies will be enabled to plan, fund, manage and deliver integrated care for people in their region.
Minister Harris concluded, “This is only one of a number of decisions that need to be taken in relation to the future development of our health service structure."