{"id":40976,"date":"2025-09-24T16:52:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/40976\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T16:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:52:06","slug":"what-will-the-hses-takeover-of-childrens-health-ireland-mean-for-patients-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/40976\/","title":{"rendered":"What will the HSE\u2019s takeover of Children\u2019s Health Ireland mean for patients? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news that the Health Service Executive<\/a> (HSE) would be taking over Children\u2019s Health Ireland<\/a> (CHI) from 2027 wouldn\u2019t have come as a surprise to many in political circles. The paediatric healthcare provider has faced a litany of controversies, many of which centre around its orthopaedic services. <\/p>\n

Between children with scoliosis receiving implants with unapproved springs, hip operations being carried out without meeting the clinical threshold for surgery and an internal report highlighting a \u201ctoxic\u201d work culture and potential waiting list mismanagement \u2013 the issues have been ever-present.<\/p>\n

But the move of a takeover has long been signalled. Former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly sought legal advice as to whether the State could take over the children\u2019s hospitals last year.<\/p>\n

In May, The Irish Times reported that Ms Carroll MacNeill was actively considering subsuming the entity back under the HSE.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Children\u2019s Health Ireland to be folded into HSEOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At the time, she had announced she was appointing HSE board members to that of CHI, which she says now is \u201cevidence\u201d this is something that has been on the cards for several months.<\/p>\n

CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent was told on Tuesday evening about the move, before it was announced early on Wednesday. This was met shock, senior sources said.<\/p>\n

But it shouldn\u2019t have been. The HSE and the Minister had almost weekly conversations around the paediatric hospital group, including possible subsuming.<\/p>\n

But what does any of this really mean? For patients, it means very little. <\/p>\n

Bernard Gloster, chief executive of the HSE, said most people who present to Irish hospitals were \u201cnot really caught up in who\u2019s in charge of it, what the name of it is and what the branding is\u201d.<\/p>\n

What it would mean on a \u201cday-to-day operational basis\u201d was \u201cthe operational oversight, the operational focus \u2013 everything the HSE applies to all of its own hospitals \u2013 will be applied to CHI, as well as all of the supports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under the changes, which will take 15 to 18 months to complete on a legislative basis, the full management of CHI will be brought under the HSE Dublin and Midlands health area, which is run by Kate Killeen White, regional executive officer (REO).<\/p>\n

These regions appear before the HSE board every month, Mr Gloster said, and present \u201cvery detailed performance report, line-by-line item\u201d at which REOs are \u201cheld to account\u201d.<\/p>\n

There will be no impact on staff, with the Minister stating those in employment in CHI have \u201ca lot of work to do and we need them to keep doing it\u201d.<\/p>\n

It would appear the main result from this move is an attempt to rebuild trust and confidence in the body, as it begins its new role running the new children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The news that the Health Service Executive (HSE) would be taking over Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI) from 2027…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30791,1418,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-40976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}