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APPENDIX VIII.HEALTH AUTHORITIES ACT, 1960.Cléireach an Choiste, Coiste um Chuntais Phoiblí. On the occasion of my appearance before the Committee of Public Accounts on 31st January last, I undertook to examine the possibility of furnishing the Committee with information as to the effects of the creation of unified Health Authorities for Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford on the costs of the administration of the health services in these areas. The Act was brought into operation on 1st July, 1960 and resulted in the creation of a single Health Authority in each area to assume the functions previously discharged by the Borough Councils and County Councils, as Health Authorities, and by a number of Joint Bodies such as Boards of Assistance. In all, the four new Health Authorities took the place of 19 separate bodies. The administrative re-organisation following on the implementation of the provisions of the Act had to be undertaken gradually for the reason that a rapid termination of the existing arrangements would have involved a degree of confusion and inconvenience to persons receiving services. The determination of staffing requirements, including appropriate gradings and the allocation of revised duties to existing staffs proved to be matters requiring considerable care and involving detailed negotiations between the Department and the bodies concerned, and between those bodies and staffs representatives. It was only during the year 1962 that the effect of the Act on the administrative arrangements of the Health Authorities could be regarded as having become significant. During the interval from 1st July, 1960, when the Act came into force, considerable increases took place in the rates of pay of all categories of staffs employed in the health services, and for that reason it has not been found possible to measure the precise effect of unification on the costs of administration of the services. A further obstacle to the calculation of a figure representing the cash saving is the improvement of services which had taken place over the period referred to, and which has resulted in considerably more convenient arrangements for persons receiving services than could have been achieved, without augmented administrative and professional staffs, before unification took place. The process of re-organisation of the administrative work of these bodies is still continuing, and the re-grouping of office work, e.g. the centralisation of the payment of salaries and wages, may be expected to yield continuing economies. I regret, however, that, after careful examination of the financial returns furnished by the Health Authorities to the Department and after consultation between officers of the Department and officers of these authorities, it has not been found possible to measure these economies in terms of money. (Sinithe) P. S. Ó MUIREADHAIGH, Oifigeach Cúntasíochta, An Roinn Sláinte. 6 Bealtaine, 1963. |
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