At the request of the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, TD, we have recently undertaken the important task of developing a Corporate Plan for the Health Services 2015 – 2017. The Health Services Corporate Plan 2015 – 2017 has now been approved by the Minister and the plan is available for staff to read here.
The plan sets out our vision for the health services; ‘A healthier Ireland with a high quality health service valued by all’. This vision is underpinned by the core values of care, compassion, trust and learning.
The new Corporate Plan provides an ambitious but clear direction for the Health Services over next three years. It provides an overarching framework within which the next three Service Plans will be prepared and, as such, it will guide our plans and priorities in the coming year.
The Corporate Plan sets out 5 goals for the health services;
- Promote health and wellbeing as part of everything we do so that people will be healthier
- Provide fair, equitable and timely access to quality, safe health service that people need
- Foster a culture that is honest, compassionate, transparent and accountable
- Engage, develop and value our workforce to deliver the best possible care and service to them
- Manage resources in a way that delivers best health outcomes, improves peoples’ experience of using the service and demonstrates value for money
The Corporate Plan envisages significant changes across the health services by 2017. These changes will include;
- Creating an empowered and accountable health delivery system through the establishment of Community Healthcare Organisations, Hospital Groups, and the reform of the Primary Care Reimbursement Service and the National Ambulance Service
- Building and designing models of care which are patient-centred, evidence-based and clinically led across the whole organisation.
- Reforming the key support functions of Human Resources, Information and Communication Technology, Finance and Health Business Services (Shared Services).
The last few years have seen an unprecedented change in resources available to the health service. During this time staff have shown huge commitment to the delivery of high quality health services in a pressurised and challenging environment. Against this difficult backdrop, we have not had a Corporate Plan to guide the direction of the Health Services since 2011, to unite us towards achieving shared goals.
This ambitious Corporate Plan for 2015 - 2017, which will guide all of our work over the next three years, is to be welcomed. I would encourage each of you to take some time to read it and to identify the aspects of the plan that are most relevant to you.
I look forward to working with you, and to your continued hard work and dedication, as we all commit to making the vision of ‘a healthier Ireland with a high quality health service valued by all’ a reality.
