The Health Service Executive (HSE) has appointed an interim director of the National Hospitals Office (NHO), the body directly responsible for running the State's 51 acute hospitals. The move is seen as a first step in a significant realignment of the HSE's management structures and a tacit acknowledgement that its original structure has not met patient expectations.
Ann Doherty, who is currently responsible for corporate planning in the health service, has been given responsibility for the NHO and is to be supported by Barry O'Brien, assistant national director for human resources and Maureen Cronin, assistant national director for finance, and Phil Shovlin, general manager of the chief executive's office.
Informed sources have confirmed that yesterday's announcement is part of a process that will culminate in the amalgamation of the National Hospitals Office and the Primary Community and Continuing Care (PCCC) directorate with the aim of delivering a more seamless service for patients. It is widely seen as an acknowledgement that the separation of hospital and community health services in the HSE's original structuring HSE has failed.
While it had been expected that Ms Laverne McGuinness, the current national director of the PCCC would also assume responsibility for the National Hospitals Office, yesterday's announcement is seen as a stepping stone to the eventual amalgamation of both directorates.
In a letter to health service managers announcing Ms Doherty's appointment, Prof Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the HSE said: "I would like us to make rapid and substantial progress in the area of integrated care within and between directorates . . . I have put in place a senior cross discipline team to support the NHO management team in advancing this integrated approach."
Prof Drumm told senior managers that the new team's primary focus would be on day-to-day operational matters but that it will also carry out "a review of the overall operation of the National Hospitals Office in the context of the transformation programme and the development of the integrated model of care".
As reported last week in The Irish Times, John O'Brien, the current director of the National Hospitals Office, is to return to a full-time role as a strategic adviser to Prof Drumm. Mr O' Brien, who has been heading the NHO on a temporary basis since early 2006, joined the HSE on secondment from St James's Hospital, where he was chief executive.
When the HSE was first set up, front line patient services were structured around three major directorates: population health, focusing on health promotion and protection; primary, community and continuing care with responsibility for GP and community health services; and the national hospitals office which provides acute hospital and ambulance services.