The Tánaiste, health service unions and groups representing doctors and consultants have expressed disappointment that Prof Aidan Halligan will not be taking up the post of chief executive designate of the Health Services Executive (HSE). Dr Muiris Houston and Eithne Donnellan report.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, expressed her regret but said she "respected Prof Halligan's decision". A spokesman for the Minister said she intended bringing a memo to Government today and subject to Cabinet approval, the Oireachtas would debate the HSE Bill in full. He said she expected to have legislation in place by January 1st.
IMPACT yesterday instructed its 25,000 members not to attend, co-operate with, or participate in, briefing sessions by the interim HSE, citing a lack of confidence in the way the health reform programme is being managed. The sessions are on issues such as jobs, pay, and working conditions.
Mr Kevin Callinan, national secretary of IMPACT's health and welfare division, said the union believed the briefing sessions could represent an attempt by the interim HSE "to circumvent a negotiated resolution on these issues".
The secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said Prof Halligan's decision not to take the post "puts a major question mark over the timescale for the implementation of reforms in view of the fact that we do not have a chief executive and do not have legislation in place".
The executive chairman of the HSE, Mr Kevin Kelly, said that an acting chief executive would be appointed "in the coming weeks" and that a permanent chief executive would be recruited within six to nine months.
However, he did not rule out going back to the panel from the original recruitment campaign and making an appointment from it. He specifically ruled out taking the post himself on an interim basis.
Mr Kelly confirmed that Prof Halligan, who is deputy chief medical officer of the Department of Health in the UK and director of clinical governance for the National Health Service, had made the decision to decline the HSE post for personal and family reasons. Prof Halligan was due to commence work on January 31st, shortly after the HSE assumes responsibility for the day-to-day running of the health service.
Confirming that Prof Halligan had not signed a contract, Mr Kelly denied that Prof Halligan's decision was related to his remuneration or to the issue of who would control health service finances under the new system. "It had emerged over the last few months that he had personal, family issues," Mr Kelly said.
Mr Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the Irish Medical Organisation, said: "We are bitterly disappointed at Prof Halligan's decision and we have serious concerns about the implication of this development for the reform process."