On November 21 2017, the Ireland East Hospital Group held its 3rd Annual Town Hall. This Town Hall was the most successful and well attended. We thank everyone from across the Group and our hospitals for making the effort to attend what proved to be a very positive and informative session. 

This year’s Town Hall was hosted by the Catherine McAuley Centre on the Mater Hospital Campus where Tom Lynch, Chairman of the Ireland East Hospital Group, welcomed staff and senior executive teams from across the Group. He delivered the opening address which highlighted positive insight into Hospital Groups and announced the formation of a Board in early 2018. He also highlighted the Minister's recent position and the Slaintecare report which see Hospital Groups as a necessary and positive change in the delivery of healthcare in Ireland and that Groups should be legislated for in late 2018 to early 2019.

Dr Ronan Fawsitt, the Group's Primary Care Lead showcased his vision for integrated primary care and the benefits of population mapping in relation to the delivery of healthcare services in hospitals and in the community.  Prof Tim Lynch, newly appointed Chief Academic Officer, along with Sinéad Brennan, QPS Director and Anne-Marie Keown, Director of Service Improvement, delivered interesting presentations which showed positive initiatives underway and plans for the future to realise our mission to deliver quality, safe, patient-centred care.

The event ended with CEO Mary Day highlighting the significant improvements made in scheduled and unscheduled care.  She also outlined plans for bringing Service Improvement and Lean Methodology to the Group and implementing lean practice not only in our hospitals but in how we run the Group as a business. She also outlined further steps in the development of the Clinical Academic Directorates, with other directorates such as a Genomics CAD and a Women’s Health, Adolescents, Paediatric CAD joining the already established Cancer CAD.  Mary showed that these initiatives were no longer ideas but are becoming a reality with serious work already being undertaken in each area in order to deliver on the vision of becoming an Academic Health Science Centre.

This Town Hall was not just about vision, it was about the positive steps and actions which have already been taken to improve service and healthcare delivery for our staff and our patients.