Targets make officials ‘uncomfortable’ – health minister

Stephen Donnelly also suggested that new targets for children with scoliosis and spina bifida may not be reached.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly (Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Wire)

The Health Minister has said some of his targets make his officials “uncomfortable”.

Stephen Donnelly also suggested that new targets for children with scoliosis and spina bifida may not be reached.

Earlier this month, Mr Donnelly announced a new 19 million euro plan to reduce waiting times for children with scoliosis and spina bifida.

The plan will include a target to reduce the number of scoliosis patients waiting more than four months from more than 90 at the moment to zero by the end of the year.

Mr Donnelly was appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee, where he was quizzed on healthcare budgets and targets.

Taking a question from Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan on the scoliosis and spina bifida plan, Mr Donnelly said that the targets were “really ambitious”.

He added: “Regardless of whether we hit that target by the end of the year, in my view it is important to push the system as far as it can go and beyond its comfort zone, if we are going to get these children treated.

“The target is that no child would be waiting more than four months for intervention.

“I have had concerns raised by some of the surgeons, saying it would be an amazing feat to actually achieve that by the end of the year given the complexities.

“I am however confident that we have a well-funded and very serious plan in place and we’re working across all the relevant hospital sites.”

Mr Donnelly said that he backed the idea of “stretch targets” for the health system, which he said were vital to go beyond the “comfort zone”.

Mr Donnelly also rejected recent accusations levelled after recent media reports detailed comments claimed to have been made by officials at the Department of Health at a meeting on January 27 to discuss the health budget oversight group.

The officials were reported to have said that “fake targets” of hiring staff were published.

“With regards to the fake targets, I don’t accept that,” Mr Donnelly said.

Quizzed by Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall, he said: “I make no apologies for setting targets for healthcare recruitment in this country that, if I’m blunt, potentially make the HSE and the Department uncomfortable.”

“I think that is part of our job in Government and part of our job in the Oireachtas.”

However, the health minister admitted that there was “significant work” needed to modernise financial reporting in the the health service.

Ms Shortall said that those issues need to be tackled urgently.

Otherwise, she said, “we are going to continue to be in this kind of twilight zone about where money is going within the health service”.

Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane also probed some of the targets set out for the HSE, as well as the funding provided by the Government ahead of the publication of a new plan to tackle waiting lists.

“When you look at the scale of the waiting list challenge, I am not convinced that we are going to do enough, I’m not convinced that the targets that are being set will be met. But I do agree that setting ambitious targets is what a Minister for Health should do,” he told the minister.