Fianna Fáil Spokesperson for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that the HSE can be reformed through our health care professionals.
Speaking after inviting HSE boss Tony O’Brien to step down from his position he says he’s doesn’t believe that the HSE can’t be reformed
Appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee, HSE boss Tony O'Brien respectfully declined calls to resign.
As of Thursday evening May 10th the HSE Director General has announced that he will be stepping down from his position.
In a detailed statement from the HSE it’s said
Mr O’Brien will step down as of close of business tomorrow.
“In order to avoid any further impact to the delivery of health and social care services, in particular the cancer screening services that have become the focus of intense political debate in recent days".
During the meeting of the Committee Fianna Fáil Health Spokesperson Stephen Donnelly advised Mr O'Brien that it is his parties position that they would like him to step back from his role immediately without prejudice.
Addressing the committee he said the Cervical Check controversy "has been a catastrophic failure of governance and has led to a collapse in confidence in screening services."
The HSE boss acknowledged the significant issues and told Deputy Donnelly that he intends to continue work to address these cornering issues, while respectfully declining to take up the offer of resignation, but it was later announced that he would be stepping down.
Speaking to Eamon on Désie Today the Wicklow TD Stephen Donnelly said he doesn't sign up to the idea that HSE can't be reformed.
" I think we have to accept that medicine is imperfect and we as humans are flawed and we all make errors and that there will always be misses, but can we improve the HSE, can we have a system where the patients are told about what worked and didn't work, including mistakes that were made? Absolutely we can," he said.
Speaking to Eamon about his time abroad "doing" healthcare reform, Deputy Donnelly said that one of the most "important" things in health care reform is that it has to be led by the healthcare professionals themselves.
"One of the mistakes we make in Ireland, in healthcare, education and local government, is we don't trust the front line workers to do the job they know how to do and want to do." added the Health Spokesperson.
Listen to the Fianna Fail's Health Spokespersons interview with Eamon below.
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/fianna-fail-spokesperson-stephen-donnelly-speaks-to-eamon
