Without getting into the specifics of the incidents that are being plastered all over the tabloids the lack of standards based quality systems in the health service is still putting patients health at risk and costing the state a fortune. It seems bizarre that a doctor has been appointed head of quality for the HSE. I don’t know anything about the man but unless he has worked as a QA manager in a large private sector organisation designing and implementing quality procedures to a recognised ISO standard he doesn’t have the necessary qualifications. Being a medical doctor is at the least irrelevant and may be a hindrance.
The lack of standards based procedures around early pregnancy scans is typical of the lack of understanding of what quality management systems are in the health service. The HSE needs to produce a set of standards that every hospital must conform to. This does not mean that every hospital has to do everything the same way, it means that they must all conform to the standard. For example the standard could state “when scanning a pregnant patient in the first xxx weeks of pregnancy if an anomaly if detected the patient shall be informed that there is a concern and a second scan shall be carried out by a consultant within one week”. What procedures each hospital puts in place to make sure the standard is adhered to is up to them as long as the HSE’s external auditor is happy that they conform to the standard. It’s what’s done in every ISO company in Ireland, why not in the health service? If such systems are supposedly in place then the HSE auditors and the guys who set the standards should all be sacked.
The lack of standards based procedures around early pregnancy scans is typical of the lack of understanding of what quality management systems are in the health service. The HSE needs to produce a set of standards that every hospital must conform to. This does not mean that every hospital has to do everything the same way, it means that they must all conform to the standard. For example the standard could state “when scanning a pregnant patient in the first xxx weeks of pregnancy if an anomaly if detected the patient shall be informed that there is a concern and a second scan shall be carried out by a consultant within one week”. What procedures each hospital puts in place to make sure the standard is adhered to is up to them as long as the HSE’s external auditor is happy that they conform to the standard. It’s what’s done in every ISO company in Ireland, why not in the health service? If such systems are supposedly in place then the HSE auditors and the guys who set the standards should all be sacked.