The Health Information and Quality Authority has found “significant and serious shortcomings” in the standard of foster care provided by the HSE. That issue cannot be understated given the number of deaths of children in HSE care in recent years. Also this week the story rolled on about dental care being cut back from medical care holders to save money.
Additionally, management of Merlin Park Hospital in Galway revealed plans to suspend all elective surgeries for budgetary reasons; “the proposal would see the cancellation of hip replacements as well as spine, shoulder, hand, foot and ankle surgery” according to the Times. Merlin Park is just the most recent hospital to curtail services to save money.
All that follows weeks of coverage about severe understaffing in A&E units throughout the country due to a mis-advised HSE policy relating to junior doctors’ rotations.
So it’s most interesting to see on the ETenders website that the HSE is seeking tenders for a nationwide “Employee Engagement Survey Consultancy”. Wonder how many surgeries or dental visits you could get for that. The brief says “the results of this consultancy assignment will be used to inform the organisation strategies in these areas over the coming years.”
Isn’t that what the top brass, through the use of a chain of command, are supposed to do?