A disagreement has emerged between Waterford’s elected representatives and the CEO of UHW, Ben O’Sullivan.
Mr O’Sullivan was invited, along with HSE representatives, to attend a meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
In a letter to Waterford’s Councillors, Mr O’Sullivan reminded them that there were five elected representatives on the Regional Health Forum, where questions can be submitted to senior HSE managers. The letter also highlighted the Parliamentary Affairs Division, where Councillors can ask questions and make representations.
This response was taken to be an outright refusal, which Councillors said was unacceptable and they called for the invitation to be reissued.
VERY REGRETTABLE
The issue was first raised during the May Plenary meeting of Waterford Council by Cllr Mary Roche who said she regretted Mr O’Sullivan’s decision not to accept their invitation to attend a local authority meeting.
“The letter from the Chief Executive of UHW, who is obviously declining our invitation to meet with the council, I have to say I regret that. I appreciate it is nothing personal that there is a regional health forum in place,” she said.
“University Hospital Waterford is the only Model 4 hospital in the Country that doesn’t head up a region,” she explained.
“It is very, very poorly funded and has very serious issues that I think deserve discussion outside of the Regional Health Forum in an exclusive space, where we are speaking about hospital facilities in Waterford and that would be our exclusive focus,” Cllr. Roche said.
“I think it is unfortunate that isn’t going to happen. We are all on the very same side here, we are a small area and we can support each other, and we should support each other. I think it is very regrettable.
“The decision has obviously been made … we are really just looking for a briefing from the hospital on what their priorities are. We don’t get that.”
Later in the conversation, Cllr Roche asked for the issue not to be personalised, and acknowledged that there may be constraints which were not apparent.
HIDING BEHIND PROTOCOL
Councillors broadly agreed that the refusal to attend should not be let stand, and that the invitation should be issued again.
Sinn Féin colleagues, Joeanne Bailey, Kate O’Mahoney, and John Hearne all called for the invitation to be reissued saying the matter was too serious to be let go.
Councillors Declan Clune and Joe Kelly had stronger words. With Cllr Clune saying, “I don’t think that [Mr. O’Sullivan] should hide behind process or the Regional Health Forum. We specifically requested him, not the Health Forum, and it is specifically about UHW,” Cllr. Clune said.
“I think it’s disgraceful that he won’t come in. We should follow up.”
Cllr Joe Kelly had similar views, saying “Hiding behind protocol, rules, procedures, I don’t think it’s acceptable. Something as important as that, a person should come in, that’s my personal view on it”.
“Sorry we’re not turning up—that’s not acceptable. The message given to this council is just a whitewash response, it’s not acceptable.”
When it was asked if individuals in positions of authority on public body’s had any obligation to attend Council meetings when requested, Cllr Roche replied, “It’s not a subpoena.”
To which a call came out “maybe it should be.”
The Council Executive confirmed that individuals were ‘perfectly entitled’ to refuse an invitation to attend a meeting with the Council.
It was agreed that the request would be reissued.
AARON KENT
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
