The Minister for Health has suggested to the HSE board that new development and capital funding restrictions could be applied to hospitals that fail to be “fully” transparent or engaged in system improvement. Minister Stephen Donnelly has asked the HSE board for ideas on “appropriate sanctions/measures” that could be initiated.
On 24 October 2023, Minister Donnelly wrote to HSE Chairperson Mr Ciarán Devane to get “assurances” from the HSE board about the strength of clinical governance and performance across all State-funded health services.
He asked the HSE board to revert with proposals for improving how clinical audit, assurance, and governance are implemented; reducing any variability in the robustness of such systems; and increasing the degree of transparency and patient participation.Where services are contracted to and not managed by the HSE, additional changes to current practice and accountability mechanisms “may be desirable”.
“My goal in asking the board to undertake this work with some urgency is to ensure exceptional issues are identified quickly and to strengthen the culture of safety and quality that underpins confidence in publicly-funded services – and which drives continuous improvement in outcomes.”
The Minister added that the need for transparency also pertains to the sharing of performance data.
He stated a small number of voluntary hospitals had not yet signed up to the Health Performance Visualisation Platform, which aims to help improve efficiency and productivity.
Minister Donnelly added organisations almost exclusively funded by the Exchequer must be fully transparent.
“I would question whether we should be allocating new development funding, or indeed capital funding, to hospitals that are failing to be fully transparent as organisations or fully engaged in system improvement. I would welcome some ideas from the board regarding appropriate sanctions/measures that could be applied,” he concluded.
Comment was requested from the HSE and Department.
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