Annual Report - St Vincent's University Hospital

Annual Report 2005 10
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S Report
The infrastructural deficits have and will continue to
create difficulties for our hospitals. The media have
highlighted issues around hospital hygiene, MRSA and
Winter Vomiting (SRSV). A major contributor to
difficulties in dealing with the above issues has been the
infrastructural deficits, not alone faced by the hospital
Group but also by other healthcare providers. Other
contributory factors are high bed occupancy levels and
general overcrowding. The Group hospitals are over
twenty years old and were not designed or built to deal
with today's needs. Lack of en-suite bathroom and toilet
facilities and single rooms are examples of the deficits.
Proposals to deal with the infrastructural deficits have
been submitted to the Health Service Executive and
Minister for Health and Children. These proposals
include, the need to build new purpose designed wards
for Cystic Fibrosis, Liver Transplantation and related
work, infection control facilities and specialist medical
and surgical wards.
Finance and Activity - Economies of scale and
efficiencies were leveraged within the Group, which
helped with some of the financial problems in 2005. The
Group hospitals managed to increase patient throughput
by re-engineering some of the processes. The protracted
on-going financial negotiations between the Group and
its funders i.e. HSE / VHI to ensure the provision of
sufficient resources to fund its activities had to be dealt
with. You can see from the Financial Controller's report
on behalf of the Group that the overall financial
performance was good. I am pleased to say that overall
expenditure versus revenue for the company resulted in
a small surplus for the year ended 31st December 2005.
It is my view that in the future, it will be important that
the Group is paid for the services it provides. I hope the
changes in structures within the health services will
allow organisations like ourselves to be funded on an
item of activity basis going into the future. I believe the
Group is well placed to prove that it is effective and
efficient in its provision of services from a financial and
clinical perspective.
I should point out that the Board of Directors have put in
place governance structures that can evidentially prove
the Group is providing high quality clinical services
efficiently and effectively which can be measured and
monitored. In 2005, the Board of Directors and
management carried out a review of its structures from
a clinical and non-clinical perspective. In his report, the
Chairman of the Board has covered details of various
developments and changes which will support the Group
hospitals in providing services to its patients. The Board
have put in place the following Committees - Clinical
Governance Committee and the Research and Education
Advisory Committees. These sub-committees of the
Board will supplement the other Board committees
already established i.e. Finance and Strategy, Audit,
Fundraising and Mission.
I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of
the key initiatives and highlights in relation to 2005,
which I believe, influenced various decision-making
processes in the year.
Quality - I reported last year that the Group received
the award of 'pre-accreditation advanced' status from
the Irish Health Service Accreditation Board which was in
line with our peers. This process of measuring an
organisation's performance against pre-determined
quality standards, through self-assessment and peer
review, enabled the Group identify over eighty quality
improvement initiatives, many of which have been
implemented. The Group hospitals were due to have a
mid-cycle review in September but that was deferred to
January 2006. I can report that this review has taken
place and while we still await the official report, the
feedback has been very positive.
The Group appointed a Clinical Audit Co-ordinator to
support clinical audit at all levels within the Group and
there are plans to develop the organisational structures
to support this initiative.
Research & Education Advisory Committees to the Board
I would like to report that both of these committees
under the interim Chairmanship of Professor Pat Fottrell,
supported by Mr. Leo Kearns and a number of external
and internal appointments, have carried out or are in the
process of carrying out various reviews of the Healthcare
Group hospital facilities from a research and education
perspective. This work will support and help to inform
the Group from a strategic point of view and help us
decide what direction to take in the future. These
advisory committees will report back in more detail to
the Board in the early part of 2006.
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