The reform of the health service must be radical and cannot be built on a service model that is no longer fit for purpose, a conference on health management was told today.
Richard Dooley, president of the Health Management Institute of Ireland, told the organisation's inaugural conference at Farmleigh House, Dublin, the traditional approach to service cuts was inappropriate in the current circumstances.
While major healthcare challenges were "forever present", the challenges in the Irish context were "particularly severe" he said.
"Ongoing and formalised professional development of managers is the strategic investment now required to ensure service solutions for the future that meet the needs of our patients, the requirements of Government and that can be sustained," he said.
Topics under discussion at today's conference include new policies, new practices and success in leading change.
Speakers at the conference included Cathal Magee, chief executive of the HSE, Dr Martin Connor, head of the HSE's Special Delivery Unit, Heinz Kölking, president of the European Association of Hospital Managers and Sue Hodgetts, chief executive of the Institute of Healthcare Management in the UK.
Opening the conference, Minister for Health James Reilly said he would like to see offices carrying a sign saying "it's the patient stupid" because it was "desperately, dangerously easy to fall in love with process" and forget the patient.
"I want to turn the health service upside down so the patient comes first, in the middle and last," he said.
Speaking outside the conference he defended the handling of the recruitment of junior doctors for vacant posts in hospitals in Ireland.
He said the initial campaign was "a resounding success" because 230 of the doctors recruited from India and Pakistan were now working in the system.
Approximately 80 doctors, recruited by the HSE in July, are still waiting to sit an exam, which is going to happen later on this month, the Minister said.
