Minister for Health Dr James Reilly has said that changes to governance arrangements at Tallaght hospital in Dublin will make management structures at the institution more efficient and streamlined.
Details of the changes to the hospital’s governance were set out last night in a joint statement issued by its president, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Dr Michael Jackson, its board and Dr Reilly.
The statement said the reforms to the governance structures at the hospital would take place in two phases. An interim board is to be appointed imminently with a reduced membership. In the longer term the existing hospital charter will be replaced by legislation.
Dr Reilly said past boards at the hospital, with 23 members, had been too big and resulted in five chief executives coming and going over the last three years.
He said a Health Information and Quality Authority investigation due to be presented to him shortly would highlight concerns over governance at Tallaght hospital and that was what he had sought to address.
However, he said the board appointed to the hospital in August and its new chief executive Eilish Hardiman had successfully started to turn around the institution with Tallaght staying within budget during September.
The Government is to provide additional funding to the hospital, which is facing a financial deficit of about €11 million, as part of the reforms. He said the hospital had a plan to make up the deficit over the next 12 months.
"We will ensure that the hospital continues to provide care to patients," Dr Reilly told RTÉ Morning Ireland. "This hospital will not be allowed to run out of money. There is real consequence for this and this is a new board being formed..."
Dr Reilly said the voluntary status of Tallaght hospital would remain in place under the reforms.
“The values and principles of openness and inclusiveness in all aspects of healthcare provision, relating to medicine, nursing and research, shall be maintained by the president of the hospital as also will be the principles of pluralism, freedom of conscience and freedom to practise religion in the hospital.”
The agreement on the reforms followed intensive discussions involving the hospital board, the hospital president, the Minister, the Department of Health and the HSE since last August.
A 2009 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers recommended the size of the hospital board be reduced from 23 to eight to 12 people. A recent inquiry chaired by Dr Maurice Hayes into how 3,498 GP letters were not processed properly at the hospital and how nearly 58,000 X-rays went unreported between 2006 and 2009 concurred with this view.