Plans for radical changes in the way health services are run from January 1st have been postponed, and the heads of the State's health boards will continue to manage services for several months, it was confirmed last night.
The interim Health Service Executive (HSE) said the current chief executives of the health boards "will continue to handle regional and local management, and maintain existing reporting relationships, which will devolve over the six months, in an incremental way, to the HSE". It said the chief executives had agreed to this proposal earlier this week.
The interim HSE made the announcement after it was accused by the main health service unions of failing to make adequate arrangements for the transfer of responsibility for services from health boards and the Department of Health to the HSE in the new year.
The unions warned of "systems failures" that could endanger patients if plans to change the day-to-day management of the health service were introduced on January 1st.
The chief executives will report to Mr Kevin Kelly, interim chief executive of the HSE.
"This is in effect a parallel management transition and implementation process, designed to protect against any gaps in service delivery," the HSE statement said.
"The chief executives will have delegated authority from the interim chief executive of the HSE," it added.
Up to now it had been indicated that the health board chief executives would be staying on in an advisory rather than management capacity.
The Irish Medical Organisation, the Irish Nurses' Organisation, SIPTU and IMPACT said yesterday that more rigorous safeguards were needed to eliminate risks to patients when the running of the service was handed over to the HSE in the new year. In a joint statement they said that while they were not opposed to reforms in the health service, transition arrangements drawn up by the interim HSE "fail to address real risks".
"Representatives of clinical and other staff have not been involved in developing the transition plans and we are not convinced that risk of serious failures have been properly considered, let alone eliminated," the unions, which represent over 100,000 health service staff, said.
"Health staff have supported the proposed reforms because they hoped they could provide the opportunity to deal with problems that have bedevilled the health service for years. But they are now warning of a real danger that the reforms will not work because they are not being handled correctly. There has been insufficient involvement of the people that know, and will be expected to operate, the system."
The unions said there was confusion over legal responsibilities and reporting relationships in the new system.
Calling on the Government to ensure that more rigorous standards are put in place, a spokesman for the four health organisations said: "Whatever the reason for rushing to meet the arbitrary establishment date of January 1st, it is clearly not related to patient or client need."
A spokeswoman for the HSE said the prevention of risk and the continuity of service for patients and clients were paramount.
Meanwhile, formal talks between the Health Service Employers' Agency and IMPACT to avert industrial action by the union's health service members from Monday began last evening.