Peamount Hospital Incorporated: preliminary development programme.

Abstract

The Finance and General Purposes Committee of the Board of Management of Peamount Hospital at their meeting in February, 1994 instructed the management to prepare a preliminary development programme. This programme summarises recent history in the context of activity in the various sections of the hospital. It covers the changes developments and set-back over the recent past as a prelude to examination of the strengths and weaknesses in the current situation at Peamount. The Department of Health Strategy for Health Care in the 1990s is analysed with particular reference to its implications for Peamount. Attention is given to the changing pattern of hospital services and its implications. Wide ranging proposals are made for the strengthening of existing services and the development of new services to meet health needs and to ensure high standards of excellence with financial viability. In accordance with the intentions of the Department of Health Strategy the programme is designed to achieve greater integration of Peamount into the local community services. In addition to the development on a national scale of specialities in respiratory medicine and in services to people with a mental handicap is outlined. The presentation is provided as a basis for policy in the future. The precise policy to be established is dependent on discussion and agreement with the Health Board/Health Authority and the Department of Health and on the provision of funding. This is suggested as the next stage in the process. An operational programme must be developed to accommodate the existing and new activities suggested, as they are wide ranging and require considerable reorganisation. Ideally. this would be prepared following agreement on policy so as to ensure effective implementation. Similarly it will be necessary to examine the organisation and structures required but this also can only be undertaken in a meaningful way when policy has been determined.