Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A MEMBER OF Sláintecare’s Advisory Council fears more resignations will follow if they don’t see major action from the government in response to the stalling of Ireland’s health reforms.
Liam Doran, former general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), told The Journal remaining members have received “no communication from government that shows they understand” the scale of the ten-year plan.
The council is discussing the state of the project with the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly at 5pm on Friday in an online meeting.
It will be their first such meeting since the resignations last week of two key figures charged with overseeing the programme, Professor Tom Keane – who chaired the Advisory Council – and Laura Magahy, the executive director of the unit charged with driving the reform programme.
The Sláintecare Implementation Advisory Council (SIAC) is an approximately 20-strong diverse group of medical professionals and patient advocates.
“We’re looking for answers,” Doran said, “This is a massive exercise. It will span three or four governments, but we’ve heard nothing and had no communication from government in the past week that shows they understand this.”
On whether he believes more resignations are likely, he said SIAC members need to see a turnaround in the implementation of the Sláintecare programme.
“A small number of people have indicated that they are thinking about their position. We need to come out [of the meeting with the Health Minister] where we’re in a position that having taken a step backwards, we’re now taking three steps forward – but the jury is still out on that.”
He outlined several key points council members want to raise with the minister, including the specifics of Magahy’s resignation, including its cause and the “internal departmental role” which a number of members believe played a part in her stepping down.
“There needs to be a plan for people who can come in and drive and energise the process from here,” Doran added.
Among the other points he said members will be raising are the decision to place the Sláintecare office in the Department of Health, where it’s just “one of many units” rather than in the Department of the Taoiseach.
“Why was that not done from the start as was recommended in the report? The Sláintecare plan needs to be at the centrality of the whole of government,” Doran said.
Members will also be stressing that “worldwide competitive contracts” are needed for hospital consultants under the plan, as well as emphasising that the “failure to implement” the six new regional structures for the HSE needs to be tackled.
“What’s happened there is that the HSE senior management won,” said Doran.
“We need those new structures and it’s necessary because it will integrate care between hospitals and community structures much better than how it is now, where there is a multiplicity of layers of management, making it harder to do work at all levels.”
It does make you wonder, if the sand has taken back that much in nearly sixty years, how much from the Egyptian era is lost under the Sahara.
Surely the Kolmanskop of the Namib Desert is a well known haunt of your readers ,and this will not come as news to them.
Some ghost estate…….
Amazeballs!
That’s Longford.
Leithrim a close second
I was in Namibia this year such an amazing country. So many natural wonders there. Oldest plants. 2nd biggest canyons in the world, 2nd biggest Sand Dune in the world, linked to Victoria Falls and many more. Ethosa Safari Park was the best experience of my life.
This was on that BBC Science show with professor Brian Cox…. Interesting show!
The pictures are good, but to walk around it is really strange. It’s like they planned to return there was so much stuff left.
It’s a proven fact that deserts are living things and constantly moving and growing. Interesting stuff. Put into similar context, look at all the manors and castles in Ireland that have been taken back by Mother Nature over the centuries.
Amazeballs
Amazeballs
Balls of amazement.
Amazeballs
If they had only kept the doors closed……
Place looks fairly bate..
You’d look worse if you we’re left out in the desert for 60 years!!!
Wud be well exfoliated tho..:)
Amazeballs
Longford and Leitrim in 5 years!
dump
Namibia’s well worth a holiday. I didn’t make it to the ghost town, but Swakopmund, right on the coast, is beside some of the most breathtaking parts of the Namib Desert. Some of the world’s best oysters in those parts, too! Namibia is a weird country, due to their history of German colonialism, but it’s nevertheless rich in indigenous cultural diversity. Many would say the country benefited from it, others not. Thanks for the photos. They make me want to go back!
have your say