‘Nobody likes criticism’ - Sláintecare member on Minister Donnelly’s decision to wind down advisory council

Stephen Donnelly

Eoghan Moloney

A member of the Sláintecare Implementation Advisory Council has said he is “not surprised” it has been disbanded after members criticised the pace of healthcare reform in recent weeks.

Liam Doran, former General Secretary of the INMO, said he is “not surprised, but disappointed” that the council has been wound up by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly after the resignations of three council members in recent weeks.

He said the council had criticised government for a lack of “governance, accountability and commitment” to reform in the healthcare system, and added: “no one likes criticism”.

The council’s chair Professor Tom Keane and executive director Laura Magahy, as well as Prof Anthony O’Connor have resigned in recent weeks due to concerns over the slow pace of reform.

“Nobody likes criticism and we obviously have been critical in recent weeks about the pace of progress and the nature of progress. So, not surprised but disappointed,” Liam Doran told RTÉ’s This Week programme.

“Members of the council, including the chair, had said they viewed progress as impossible because of the lack of governance, accountability and commitment. We can’t ignore that.

“In our engagement in recent weeks, we’ve had no explanation from government or senior management as to how very, very excellent people like Tom Keane can arrive at that conclusion, but we now have a minister who has decided to dispense with our services and set up a group which has a one-item agenda; monitoring the regional health authorities, which is not the totality of the Sláintecare programme, which is also disappointing in itself,” Mr Doran said.

Mr Doran said that a number of areas within Sláintecare that are “in difficulty” and said there is a need for a council to monitor the implementation in its totality.

“If the minister doesn’t like this council, well then I would still hope, notwithstanding his original decision, this will be reviewed as everything that is good in Sláintecare is vital to Irish citizens and the council had no vested interests.

“We perceived there to be difficulties and the minister has chosen to dispense with our services, establish a narrow group - albeit with extraordinary frontline people - but that’s not what is required now to get Sláintecare back on track,” Mr Doran said.

Mr Doran said the minister’s decision to wind up the council suggests that “criticism is still not accepted”, and he said Sláintecare must be “removed from politics in all forms”.

Mr Doran said he had not been asked to join the new steering group being formed by Minister Donnelly, which will contain some former council members, but said he “would always play his part in implementing the totality of Sláintecare” if he was asked to contribute.

He said “only the minister” could answer whether his criticism of Minister Donnelly played a part in his omission from the new steering group.

Stephen McMahon of Irish Patients Association said: "The Minister’s proposals yesterday are project oriented; its the governance and oversight of all of Sláintecare projects that are a concern.

“We look forward to hearing the outcome of the The Taoiseach’s discussions on the best way forward with his Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Cabinet.

“Finally a thought, Who will decide who will be patient advocates on all of the various committees?”

Labour TD and justice spokesperson Brendan Howlin said Minister Donnelly’s communication yesterday was a “thank you and goodbye letter” to the implementation council.

Deputy Howlin said the initial all-party advisory group was set up to look at all of Sláintecare and not just a section of it and said that group should be “free to criticise when they see right in front of them that it is not progressing”.

Labour health spokesperson Duncan Smith said the setting up of a separate group to advise on the regionalisation aspect of Sláintecare is “not in the spirit of achieving the aims of the full system reform” proposed by Sláintecare.

He reiterated his call to Minister Donnelly to give an honest assessment of the future of Sláintecare to the Oireachtas, Deputy Smith said consideration should be given to extending the Advisory Group’s term.

“Sláintecare was supposed to be a once in a generation opportunity to end the two-tier health system in Ireland and the Advisory Council was supposed to oversee every element of the plan to ensure consistency. It’s worrying to see that a new group will be set up to just deal with regionalisation – this flies in the face of the original aims of the Slaintecare Advisory Group. Rather than instructing new people, the most common sense thing to do would be to extend the lifetime of the Advisory Group and ensure they have the political support required for change.

“This fiasco is causing further confusion about the future of healthcare in Ireland which is unfair on the public but also on the frontline workers in our system. There’s failed to be a consistent line from the Minister on what’s actually going on with Sláintecare, and I am reiterating my calls for him to show political leadership and give an honest assessment of what’s going on and where we can go from here.

“Senior people with a track record of delivering system change have resigned because they felt the wheels were coming off the programme. We still need to understand the specific issues that led to these resignations. It’s absolutely clear that there is a communication breakdown between the Minister and the group. How can we be sure that the same roadblocks in the Advisory Council’s way will not be in the way of this new group?” Deputy Smith asked.

Meanwhile, a Cabinet minister has insisted the Government remains committed to Sláintecare.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said on Sunday the Government is fully behind the project.

"The Government is absolutely committed to Sláintecare and implementing universal healthcare," he told RTE radio.

"Slaintecare is the roadmap for that."

The Donegal TD added: "I know Minister Donnelly also will have further announcements post-Budget in how we move that forward and achieve that ambition, and obviously the objective of achieving universal single tier of health and social care system is central to that."