Health

Tony O’Brien: Lack of accountability will doom Sláintecare’s regional system to failure

Five years on from the launch of Sláintecare, there is still no plan to legislate for the establishment of regional health areas as entities distinct from the HSE

Progress on the Sláintecare reforms has moved at a snail’s pace. Picture: PA

One of the central ambitions of the entire Sláintecare project, as advanced by an all-party Dáil committee in 2017, is the creation of regional health areas (RHAs) that will be responsible for all health and social care services at a population level within their respective geographies.

A key objective of this proposed change is to provide for the alignment and integration of the different strands of service provision, and to bring much of the decision-making ...