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Opinion: Kealan Flynn

All entries for Kealan Flynn

A chance to inspire is lost at the Ard Fheis

Kealan Flynn | 16 March 2009

Kealan Flynn writes that the Taoiseach could and should have used his Ard Fheis speech as an honest, truthful State of the Nation address. Brian Cowen’s speech to the party faithful at the recent Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis should have... Read more

People have lost faith in Cowen

Kealan Flynn | 22 November 2008

Bertie Ahern’s governments were famous for an approach to politics and public administration that could best be described as leadership by weather-vane. But in everyday political terms, it suited the time and suited the people, or many of them at... Read more

Medical card row could poison FF's community roots

Kealan Flynn | 28 October 2008

It has come to something when a highly successful political machine threatens to seize up completely in the face of an entirely predictable backlash from a Budget decision to end the automatic entitlement of people over 70 to a full... Read more

High Court's ruling will not affect drive to cut drug costs

10 October 2008

Kealan Flynn says the recent 'Hickey Case' clarifies that ministerial responsibility exists, and that the judgment will only delay the new pricing regime for prescription drugs, not derail it. Although many pharmacies have taken some comfort from the recent High... Read more

Pricing deal brings pharmacy deal closer

Kealan Flynn | 10 September 2008

Kealan Flynn takes a look at the report of the Pricing Body on the new fee structure for community pharmacies and writes that all sides should be fairly satisfied with the result. The report of the Pricing Body on a... Read more

Getting out the hair shirt in Quangoland

Kealan Flynn | 30 July 2008

Kealan Flynn writes that as the era of cutbacks and efficiencies loom, the public sector needs to match the private sector in terms of productivity. However bad things might be looking on the economic front, at least we’re not back... Read more

Data protection issues store up trouble for the future

Kealan Flynn | 02 July 2008

Kealan Flynn says that the risks we encounter when entrusting sensitive data, such as medical records, to external agencies and to the State is the price we pay for convenience. Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and signatory... Read more

Pharmacy contract must try to satisfy all parties

Kealan Flynn | 18 June 2008

Kealan Flynn writes that pharmacies can provide clinical services as part of a drive to put the focus on prevention and push services into the community. The issue of a new community pharmacy contract, which has fallen below the radar... Read more

Lisbon Treaty is the first big test of the new Taoiseach

Kealan Flynn | 04 June 2008

Anyone who has read the Lisbon Treaty from cover to cover should wear their achievement like a badge of honour. Taoiseach Brian Cowen was honest enough to admit he hadn’t read all of it, while businessman Ulick McEvaddy admitted he... Read more

Pharmacy contract can help unite primary health services

Kealan Flynn | 21 May 2008

In the first of two articles, Kealan Flynn outlines a number of important principles that should underpin the process of drawing up the new community pharmacy contract. The tendency of any military is always to fight the last war. The... Read more

HSE knows jaw-jaw is better than war-war with pharmacists

Kealan Flynn | 09 May 2008

Kealan Flynn on the truce that seems to have been reached between the HSE and the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, which now depends on the recommendations of an Independent Body The deadlock in the long-running dispute between community chemists and the... Read more

HSE is lightning rod for anger over public services

22 April 2008

Kealan Flynn on how Garret FitzGerald's criticism of Ireland's public administration, and its handling of the health sector, highlights the need for reform of the Health Service Executive. It has come to something when a former Taoiseach publicly derides the... Read more

Time to seize the opportunity for a proper e-health system

Kealan Flynn | 10 April 2008

Kealan Flynn writes about the possibility of developing comprehensive electronic health records in the future. Healthcare systems and services across the developed world have had mixed success with the introduction and application of information and communications technology. The landscape is... Read more

'Ides of March' don't bode well for chemists

Kealan Flynn | 11 March 2008

Kealan Flynn writes about the continuing dispute between community chemists, the HSE and the Minister for Health, which may yet trigger a mass exodus from the GMS scheme. In the Roman world, the most infamous of the Ides fell on... Read more

Bitter price-pill for chemists to swallow

Kealan Flynn | 26 February 2008

Kealan Flynn reports on the Irish Pharmaceutical Union's continued resistance to the new wholesale prices regime for medicines, which is due to be implemented on 1 March As the 1 March deadline approaches for a new wholesale prices regime for... Read more

Where do the medical unions go from here?

Kealan Flynn | 13 February 2008

Kealan Flynn wonders if the off-side trap sprung during the contract talks means the raison d’être for the two Irish medical associations still exists? The IMO’s poorly-judged decision to walk away from the talks on a new consultant contract, and... Read more

New president, accessible healthcare?

Kealan Flynn | 01 February 2008

With 71-year-old Arizona Senator John McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney locked in a battle for the soul of the Republican party and little more than a hair’s breadth between the Democratic party’s front runners, all eyes are now... Read more

The real price of Budget value for money pledge

Kealan Flynn | 18 January 2008

One of the most prominent but least-reported elements in Finance Minister Brian Cowen’s Budget speech is his stated determination to insist on better value for money through improved delivery in the public services. The value for money issue rarely gets... Read more

Justine who? A case of the media shooting the messenger

Kealan Flynn | 14 December 2007

Rather than addressing the core issues, which a relatively unknown journalist raised in her book and television series, the media (broadcasters in particular) opted instead to line up, much like the characters in Murder on the Orient Express, each taking... Read more

Marching to the beat of a hardened Drumm

Kealan Flynn | 30 November 2007

In the late 1980s, when Ireland had a straight choice between reining in the public finances on its own initiative, or allowing the International Monetary Fund to do the job for it, one of the quieter line ministers met serious... Read more

Could PPARS happen again? A costly lesson for the HSE

Kealan Flynn | 02 November 2007

PPARS, it will be recalled, was the high-tech, high-spec replacement for the health boards’ creaking payroll, personnel and scheduling systems; a massive project in which computerisation across the health service was to be linked with radical change in management at... Read more

Now that talking is over the end game begins

Kealan Flynn | 19 October 2007

Despite claims from some on the consultant side that there is more binding them to the desirability of a deal with employers than dividing them from actually making one, it is clear that this process is close to collapse. After... Read more

Setting the bar high for healthcare bureaucrats

Kealan Flynn | 05 October 2007

In January 2006, I wrote in this column that double-digit increases in the health budget would be possible only as long as the economy powered ahead and that we could be confident about the outlook for that year, and that... Read more

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Kealan Flynn | 21 September 2007

The Italian philosopher, Nicolo Machiavelli once remarked that “there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to indicate a new order to things, for the reformer has enemies in... Read more

The train of co-location is now in commotion

Kealan Flynn | 17 August 2007

The objections are to co-location are both philosophic and pragmatic. There is a fear that because the new clinics will be expected to make a profit (or at least to avoid incurring a loss), that quality will inevitably be compromised,... Read more

Health plans are only green around the edges

Kealan Flynn | 29 June 2007

The appointment of Green Party ministers to deal primarily with energy, the environment and local government is a clear signal that the Greens’ strategy is to try to make a difference in a few key areas that are close to... Read more

Lazarus-like recovery for Hanly after election

Kealan Flynn | 15 June 2007

Election 2007 was notable for the extent to which independent candidates, especially those who stood previously on a health/hospital services ticket, haemorrhaged support to the two main political parties. If there is any conclusion to be drawn from the results,... Read more

Minister Mary Harney may still leave her mark on healthcare

Kealan Flynn | 08 June 2007

In the end, the calculation was simple enough. Voters were terrified to trade what they had for seemingly vague promises that so much more might be achieved. They may have thought health, but they voted wealth. But at least the... Read more

Decisive action needed now on healthcare

Kealan Flynn | 25 May 2007

In the wake of an opinion poll prior to the election, one shrewd political analyst observed candidly that the factor which seemed to be motivating voters in the run-in to the election was not whether any one party could run... Read more

Failure to redraw constituencies could put election on the rocks

Kealan Flynn | 20 April 2007

The Government’s failure to revise the constituencies in advance of the general election, when it knew there was a problem following the publication of the preliminary census data, was always a risky strategy. The inevitable legal challenge means our political... Read more

Doctors may decide the outcome of the election

Kealan Flynn | 13 April 2007

With the party conference season now over, voters should be better placed to judge what the two most talked about alternative governments will do on the health issue. All parties are certainly promising more. What’s not yet clear is whether... Read more

Irish peace dividend boosts healthcare co-operation

Kealan Flynn | 30 March 2007

We’ve had peace on this island for so long now that it’s hard to imagine a return to the murder and mayhem that blighted all our lives and tarnished our nation’s reputation for three decades. As Sinn Fein and the... Read more

Is Minister Harney building a legacy to stand test of time?

Kealan Flynn | 16 March 2007

Ministers are generally careful when picking their fights and are always mindful of their political ‘legacy’. While political opponents will often ridicule Government initiatives in simplistic, black-and-white terms, Ministers themselves are notoriously reluctant to run with any new initiative without... Read more

A route to containing costs while saving lives

Kealan Flynn | 02 March 2007

As I write this piece, Reuters is reporting that Merck has reviewed its campaign to have innoculation against cervical cancer made mandatory for young school girls in the United States. In Ireland, it looks as though the Department of Health... Read more

Opposition must remember that politics is a blood sport

Kealan Flynn | 16 February 2007

The latest Irish Times/TNS mrbi opinion poll confirms something this writer has long suspected– that support for the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat option is softer than we have been led to believe. But the Rainbow alternative, while consolidating its improving levels... Read more

What rewards for risks in the public service?

Kealan Flynn | 02 February 2007

The departure of Aidan Browne as head of Primary, Community and Care at the Health Service Executive (HSE) received little more than a brief mention in the media, and seems to have evoked no surprise at all in the HSE.... Read more

Time for a radical approach

Kealan Flynn | 05 January 2007

I remember having a conversation with an official at the Department of Finance a few years ago about health service spending. It was early in 2003, when the cuts that were brought about by the earlier pre-election spending spree were... Read more

Good doctors must be protected in new law

Kealan Flynn | 15 December 2006

The re-election of Dr John Hillery for another term as president of the Medical Council could suggest that there may be an increasing recognition among doctors that a more robust and resilient regulatory regime is both necessary and inevitable. Some... Read more

Decision time for MRSA strategy

Kealan Flynn | 01 December 2006

The news that Gardai in Waterford have sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, arising from an investigation of a complaint by a local doctor whose husband died after contracting MRSA, apparently at the city’s regional hospital, is... Read more