HSE seeking clear separation between public and private hospitals at St Vincent’s campus

The HSE is seeking a clear separation between the public and private hospitals on the St Vincent’s campus in south Dublin in terms of governance, management and operations.

In a letter sent last Thursday to Prof Noel Whelan, the chairman of the St Vincent's Healthcare Group, which runs the two facilities, HSE director general Tony O'Brien said this raised a question as to whether there should be a board for the public hospital that was separate from the private institution.

“This is an area of governance which requires to be explored urgently by you together with the board of the St Vincent’s Healthcare group.”

Interim chief executive
A new interim chief executive, Killian McGrane, is to take up office from today to run the publicly-funded St Vincent's University Hospital.

He will replace Nicky Jermyn who is stepping down from the position but remaining on in the post of overall St Vincent's Healthcare group chief executive. His salary of close to €300,000, which was the source of much controversy over recent months, will continue to be paid from non-exchequer sources.

Mr O’Brien said in light of the changes at executive level, it was essential there was “absolute clarity in relation to governance across the whole of the St Vincent’s Hospital group, in particular as this relates to public hospitals.

Confused governance
He said to avoid ambiguity or confused governance, the HSE required that the interim chief executive of the public hospital should report to the chief executive of the new Dublin East regional hospital group and the national director for acute hospitals in the HSE.

He said the HSE also wanted the new interim chief executive of St Vincent’s public hospital to report directly to the group’s board through its chairman.

The HSE maintained that it would not be appropriate that the chief executive of St Vincent’s public hospital would report to the chief executive of the overall St Vincent’s group (Mr Jermyn) whose remuneration was to be funded from the private hospital.