Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly criticised the board of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) for delays in seeking a new permanent chief executive of the organisation – a key recommendation of a report looking at preparations for the move to the new national children’s hospital.
The Minister told the chairman of the CHI board Jim Browne in a letter in August that the board should have moved to advertise for a chief executive to succeed Eilish Hardiman much earlier than it did.
The Minister also said in a separate letter with the chairman that it was “concerning” that CHI had initially resisted taking part in an integrated operational assurance group with the Health Service Executive.
Dr Browne, in replying correspondence, said failure to set a substantial completion date for the new national children’s hospital was one of the significant risks to the commissioning programme for the project.
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He also said that the HSE’s recruitment embargo – which was in place from late last year until during the summer – “unfortunately delayed the filling of critical posts in the commissioning and transformation team”.
Mr Donnelly wrote to Dr Browne in June regarding the report of the operational readiness review which looked at preparations for the move to the new national children’s hospital.
He said its recommendations included the need to address urgent gaps at senior leadership level – notably the lack of a permanent chief executive.
“It is very concerning that the board has still not yet advertised for the position of a new CEO. I made it clear to the board last year that I would not be consenting to a third term for the previous CEO [Ms Hardiman]. As Minister, I require the board’s assurance that this will be urgently addressed and that the recruitment process commences without delay,” Mr Donnelly wrote in a letter to Dr Browne on June 11th.
In another letter on August 13th, Mr Donnelly said: “Regarding the CEO post, you will understand that I would have expected the board of CHI to be ready to advertise the post long before it did. I made it clear that I would not sanction the reappointment of the outgoing chief executive last year. I also made it very clear why. My primary duty is to patients, not the system or any individual.”
Ms Hardiman was appointed, following two terms as chief executive, to another senior role in CHI which is responsible for running the hospital services for children. Mr Donnelly had maintained that it would be against Government policy to appoint a person for longer than 10 years as a CEO in a State body.
In a letter to the Minister on June 24th, Dr Browne said the CHI board had accepted all the recommendations of the operational readiness review and had agreed an action plan with the HSE about their implementation.
He said the most significant risks to the commissioning programme for the new national children’s hospital included the continuing inability to set a definitive substantial completion date. He said this had “severe consequences for CHI and, in particular, [for] our transformation and commissioning programme”.
“It makes planning extremely difficult, has serious consequences for hiring and retention of critical staff, presents major budget challenges including the negotiation of contracts with significant external vendors and consequences for patients and staff through delayed access to the facilities they need and deserve.”
He said CHI had no objection to the HSE putting in place additional assurance mechanisms but “we did need to iron out the details of the group and process CHI’s role within it”. He said the group was subsequently put in place and was working well.
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