The other health reform reports

The Hanly Report into medical staffing in hospitals is the third in a series of reports commissioned by the Department of Health into the restructuring of the health service.

The three reports provide a blueprint for development of hospitals and staffing requirements over the next decade.

The other two reports, the Brennan Report and the Prospectus Report, were published in June of this year.

The Brennan Report

The Brennan report, published in June this year, recommended radical changes to the organisation of the country's health structures.

It recommended that management responsibilities be pooled in a new national health services executive, which would report to the Minister for Health and Children.

It also called for major changes in consultants' common contract to ensure medics were restrained from exceeding caps on private practice work, while it said future consultants in the health services should be obliged to work exclusively in the public sector.

Last weekend, however, Prof Brennan, criticised the Department for its "slow and fragmented approach" to implementing change since the report was presented to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, seven months ago.

She said many of the report's 135 recommendations could be implemented immediately, but the failure to appoint an interim board of the new health service executive was holding up progress.

In total, she said, the entire report could be implemented within two years.

The Department of Health has rejected the criticism and said Mr Martin will shortly announce the membership of the health services executive and an implementation group.

The Prospectus Report

The Prospectus Report, published in June, was an audit of the functions of the health system which recommended that the State's 11 health boards be replaced by four regional management structures.

It further advised that a central Health Service Executive should take over the day-to-day running of the State's health service.

It recommended that under this system, there should be a National Hospitals Office, to take over responsibility for the running of all publicly funded hospitals, and four regional management structures, supported by local health offices, instead of the current health board structure.

It advised that the Department of Health should also be restructured and concentrate more on policy than on the day-to-day running of the health service.

The report, commissioned by the Department in June 2002 and completed in January 2003, also said there should be a reduction in the number of stand-alone health service agencies, from 58 to 27.

Although presented to Mr Martin well in advance of its publication in June, the Department of Health has disputed claims that it failed to act speedily on its findings.

A spokesperson said thousands of health board staff have already been briefed on the proposed changes and that the membership of an interim Health Service Executive would be announced shortly.