The 1.4 million people living in the new Eastern Regional Health Authority area are to have their own advocate for health and social services, according to the chief executive, Mr Donal O'Shea.
Mr O'Shea, whose appointment to the authority was announced yesterday by the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said the Eastern Health Board had provided almost 30 years of unrivalled service at a time of rapid change. However, the region's health services had become fragmented.
When the board was set up in 1970, there were fewer than one million people in its catchment area. Since then there had been a 40 per cent increase of 400,000 people, equivalent to two small health boards areas. "There has been a parallel increase in the complexity of social and other is sues, as well as in the way that the health boards have had to respond to medical changes and changes in treatment," Mr O'Shea said.
He wanted patients and clients to have a "holistic, seamless, co-ordinated" service. "I believe passionately in the right of patients and clients to have easy access to appropriate and high-quality healthcare services, and this is the principle which will underline the new structures," he said.
The authority will take over the functions of the Eastern Health Board next March. It will also be responsible for funding the region's voluntary sector, including the voluntary hospitals. Mr O'Shea expected that the existing staff numbers of 30,000 would be maintained under the new structure. The authority would have a budget of £1.5 billion, he said.
Mr O'Shea has been employed in the health services sector for more than 25 years. He is currently chief executive officer of the North-Eastern Health Board and has been chairman of the task force on the Eastern Regional Health Authority since its establishment in 1997.
Mr Cowen said the challenge would be the transition from the existing structure to one where the new authority, which will take over its functions, would be responsible for planning, commissioning and overseeing the total delivery of health services in the region. "While the authority will not be directly responsible for the delivery of services itself, it will have overall responsibility for the three area health boards established under the legislation, which will be service-providers," he said.