Insipid start to Healthy Ireland

Delays and a notable absence of ministerial support for the ‘Healthy Ireland’ public health policy launch suggests future ambivalence to implementing the strategy. Here is my Medical Independent column from 25 April 2013. 

Spinning out over threesomes

 

Minister Reilly’s reaction to a Sunday newspaper article was to order a review of HSE funding for SpunOut.ie. My column for the Medical Independent from 11 April wonders how this became news in the first place

The devil without the details

See below my column from Medical Independent, written before HSE Service Plan was published today but all still applies

A critique of government progress to date

This morning I spoke at Fianna Fail’s first annual policy conference as an independent commentator, the morning of which was dedicated to discussion of health policy. Here is the script of my speech…

Reilly’s primary care centre controversy rumbles on…

Minister for Health, James Reilly’s addition of two towns in his own constituency – Balbriggan and Swords – on to a list of primary care centres is still causing controversy, two weeks after this story broke. Despite rounds of questioning in the Dail and long media outings by Minister Reilly,  we are no clearer now on how they got on the list and what criteria were used to compile the list .   

James Reilly – a year as health minister

So it’s just one year since James Reilly took up the mantle as health minister. What did he promise us and how is he doing?

James Reilly’s well paid advisors

James Reilly, Minister for Health is over  his quota of ministerial advisors and without any specific expertise in his priority area of health reform – universal health insurance…

Reilly’s special advisor paid €160,000 for 80% of his time, works here ‘on average’ 2 weeks a month

Minister James Reilly’s  much heralded special advisor Martin Connor, who is the most senior health policy advisor in the Department of Health’s Special Delivery Unit, is also a research fellow in Stanford University, in the heart of the silicon valley in California.

‘Cautious optimism’? New unambitious targets for hospital wait times

On Wednesday 25 January, Minister James Reilly held a news conference to announce new targets on reducing the numbers of trolleys and wait times for hospital treatment. It was good news all-round… ‘Cautious optimism’ was the prevailing sentiment of the day.

Reilly’ rejects HSE 2012 Service Plan: pure optics and a damage limitation exercise

Having received a hammering from the print media over the holiday period, Minister James Reilly took a media offensive on 5  January 2012 on  RTE Radio with appearances on the Pat Kenny show and an interview with Fergal Bowers on the News at One. In my opinion, these media appearances were a combination of damage limitation and pure optics…