A new HSE national productivity unit has been meeting in recent months, this newspaper has been informed.
The role of the unit was discussed at a meeting of the Sláintecare programme board in June. According to meeting minutes, members were informed that the HSE had recently established the unit and it was “reporting directly” to the CEO.
This new team will be “focused on identifying, enabling, and tracking productivity within the health sector”, the meeting heard.
A HSE spokesperson told the Medical Independent (MI) that its national productivity unit was established by the CEO in June 2024.
Members of the unit were also attending meetings of the joint Department of Health/HSE productivity and savings taskforce on a monthly basis.
This taskforce was established in February this year. According to the Department, the aim of the taskforce is to ensure that
the “maximum amount of patient care” is delivered for the
funding available.
“The context for this work is the need to provide an increasing amount of care to a growing and ageing population within a
finite budget.”
The Executive’s spokesperson told MI that the HSE national productivity unit is supporting “the taskforce to achieve its aim”.
The spokesperson added that the remit of the HSE unit “is to empower staff to innovate, leverage, and scale data-led and evidence-based initiatives which optimise the productivity of health and social care service delivery to the public”.
In July, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the new HSE unit would consider proposals in a Department paper on how behavioural science could be applied to improve productivity in the health sector.
The proposals in the Department’s paper included reducing ‘did not attend’ appointment rates through improved correspondence, which would involve national implementation of findings from ‘Better Letter Initiative’ projects.
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