The news that the Health Service Executive (HSE) would be taking over Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) from 2027 wouldn’t have come as a surprise to many in political circles. The paediatric healthcare provider has faced a litany of controversies, many of which centre around its orthopaedic services.
Between children with scoliosis receiving implants with unapproved springs, hip operations being carried out without meeting the clinical threshold for surgery and an internal report highlighting a “toxic” work culture and potential waiting list mismanagement – the issues have been ever-present.
But the move of a takeover has long been signalled. Former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly sought legal advice as to whether the State could take over the children’s hospitals last year.
In May, The Irish Times reported that Ms Carroll MacNeill was actively considering subsuming the entity back under the HSE.
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At the time, she had announced she was appointing HSE board members to that of CHI, which she says now is “evidence” this is something that has been on the cards for several months.
CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent was told on Tuesday evening about the move, before it was announced early on Wednesday. This was met shock, senior sources said.
But it shouldn’t have been. The HSE and the Minister had almost weekly conversations around the paediatric hospital group, including possible subsuming.
But what does any of this really mean? For patients, it means very little.
Bernard Gloster, chief executive of the HSE, said most people who present to Irish hospitals were “not really caught up in who’s in charge of it, what the name of it is and what the branding is”.
What it would mean on a “day-to-day operational basis” was “the operational oversight, the operational focus – everything the HSE applies to all of its own hospitals – will be applied to CHI, as well as all of the supports,” he said.
Under the changes, which will take 15 to 18 months to complete on a legislative basis, the full management of CHI will be brought under the HSE Dublin and Midlands health area, which is run by Kate Killeen White, regional executive officer (REO).
These regions appear before the HSE board every month, Mr Gloster said, and present “very detailed performance report, line-by-line item” at which REOs are “held to account”.
There will be no impact on staff, with the Minister stating those in employment in CHI have “a lot of work to do and we need them to keep doing it”.
It would appear the main result from this move is an attempt to rebuild trust and confidence in the body, as it begins its new role running the new children’s hospital.
