Statement by the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin Incorporating the National Children’s Hospital on the Hayes Report

The Board of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin Incorporating the National Children’s Hospital welcomes the recommendations of the Hayes Report as a valuable addition to the process of restructuring in the Hospital.

Many of the issues raised resonate with the findings of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report earlier commissioned by and accepted by the Hospital Board. The Hospital accepts that serious issues were identified in the past but that this did not always lead to prompt and effective action. The Hospital is now working closely with Helath Information and Quality Authority and the Health Service Executive, local GPs and others to ensure that it delivers an increasingly effective service that responds to patients’ needs. As regards the two particular issues examined by the Hayes Report, both have now been resolved with new procedures in place to ensure that such unacceptable practices do not recur.

The Hospital wishes to restate the deep regret issued on 9 March concerning two patients who suffered through delayed diagnosis. One of these patients is still under treatment at the hospital. The other patient died at the hospital last summer.

The Health Service Executive, amongst others, have noted that the hospital cleared the backlog of x-rays and achieved this at maximum speed.

The Hospital accepts the recommendations of this report and has already actioned all of them. The most significant reforms include the following:

• A new board structure is now in place, including new external non-executive appointments.
• A new Executive Management Team is now in place and aligned to international best practice.
• The new Performance and Planning Directorate has been set up to oversee the development of a performance management framework for the Hospital. This will improve the quality of patient care.
• The Hospital has established a Quality Directorate and is now recruiting a Director. (In the interim, the Departments involved report to the Medical Director).
• There is now deeper and more structured involvement of GPs and community health services in the work of the Hospital.
• The Hospital has established a Patients’ Forum