Politicians must continue to have a meaningful role in any new structures which replace health boards, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Mr Ivor Callely, said yesterday.
The Minister with responsibility for services for older people was reacting to changes proposed in a major audit of the health service carried out by Prospectus Management Consultants in co-operation with the Department of Health.
Their report, yet to be published, has recommended the State's 10 health boards be replaced by four regional executive bodies, with greater professional and patient representation, at the expense of local political representatives.
While it remains to be seen if the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, implements the recommendations of the report, Mr Callely said locally elected public representatives would have to continue to play a role in the new structures.
"A lot of the input of the locally elected public representatives has been of enormous benefit and my view is that should continue in some format," he said.
He said he was speaking from the perspective of someone who served on a health board for 17 years.
Mr Callely acknowledged local politicians had been accused of being parochial as members of health boards. "One can understand why they are parochial. They are parochial because they don't see the full jigsaw," he said.
However, if issues were clarified and they all understood the "bigger picture", he believed they would grasp change.
On cancer services, he said people couldn't expect an excellent oncology service "in every parish" but that everybody should be able to tap into an equitable service.
Neither, he said, could there be a maternity unit "in every parish" but there would have to be emergency services people could avail of if they were unable to undertake an hour-long journey to a maternity hospital.
A draft report from the Medical Manpower Taskforce has proposed the closure of maternity units at smaller hospitals around the country.
Mr Callely said there had now been more than 120 reports carried out on aspects of the health service over the past three years.
"We have enough of reports," he said, adding that it was time now to decide on how services should be delivered appropriately to different population bases.