Operational Director, University Hospital

Details of Service

The HSE is a statutory body established by the Health Act 2004, with responsibility for the delivery of health and personal social services to a population of over 5 million people living in Ireland.

In recent years the Government has made a number of structural changes to how the HSE is governed. The most recent change, effected by the Health Service Executive (Governance) Act 2019, provided for the establishment of a new board for the HSE and a new position of Chief Executive Officer.

The Board and the CEO of the HSE each have distinct statutory mandates, with the Board being the governing authority of the HSE and the CEO being responsible for managing and controlling and carrying on generally the administration of the HSE.

The responsibilities of the CEO are wide ranging and he is responsible for ensuring that the HSE is achieving its objectives, as well as providing leadership and strategic management across all aspects of the HSE’s activities.

The Sláintecare Report (2017) included a commitment to HSE regionalisation namely the organisation of national health and social care services in a manner that is fully coherent and aligned at regional level. This commitment was reaffirmed by Government in July 2019 when the geographies of six new HSE Health Regions were approved. A Memorandum on next steps, programme of work, and timelines for Health Region implementation was approved by Government in April 2022 and a HSE Health Regions Implementation Plan was approved and published in July 2023 (DoH, 2023).

The core vision driving establishment and implementation of the HSE Health Regions is the continued improvement of Patient and Service User care through a more joined-up integrated health and social care system with an integrated approach to service planning and delivery.

Health Regions

The HSE REO roles and the associated reform programme offer an exciting opportunity to shape the future of health and social care in a rapidly changing environment and to continue to implement safer better health care through integrated services.

Health Regions will be the primary service coordination and delivery units for the vast majority of health and social care services provided across Ireland. They will provide the governance and organisational arrangements to enable planning, management and delivery of care for people and for communities across their region.

The policy direction set out by Government is one in which the six Health Regions are implemented internally as formal regional structures within the HSE.

The vision and aims of the Health Regions are:

1. To deliver timely access to safe, high-quality, integrated care to all patients. This means person-centered health and social care services that are informed by the needs of the people and communities in each region, better serving people at all stages throughout their lives

2. To align hospital and community-based services in each region so that they can work together better and deliver joined-up, coordinated care closer to home. This will help to ensure that we have a highly productive, transparent service with aligned incentives

3. To improve regional investment and balance national standards of care and direction with local decision-making. This aims to ensure that people can access the same quality of care no matter where they live, and resources are fairly allocated and accounted for

4. To improve the health and well-being of people in each region by ensuring that services are planned around local needs, people are well-informed and supported when accessing services, and health inequalities are identified and addressed

Health Regions will be empowered and resourced to collaborate and work together, with the support of national services, clinical expertise, interoperable systems, business supports and national frameworks. Health Regions will be accountable and responsible for service delivery to meet local needs in ensuring the best quality health and social care services are delivered to meet both national and local targets and standards of care.

The HSE Centre will have responsibility and accountability for ensuring that nationally consistent standards, guidelines, and models of care are developed in a way that is collaborative with Health Regions and that appropriate supports are available to Health Regions. The future HSE Centre and Health Region management structures will support more streamlined decision-making.

Although the full implementation of Health Regions will be a multi-year journey, 4 Health Regions have been stood up since October 2024 with the South West Region following in March 2025. The responsibilities and boundaries of the existing South / South West Hospital Group and Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Organisations (REO) will be stood down and brought in line with the new Health Region boundaries from March 2025. The REOs hold accountability for the delivery of services and associated resources. REOs report directly to the HSE CEO on the operation and management of the Health Regions.

University Hospital Kerry

University Hospital Kerry (UHK) is a Level 3 Acute teaching hospital, providing comprehensive medical and surgical services for adults and children and maternity services to women in the surrounding catchment area. The hospital has 273 inpatient beds and 24 day beds and provides acute hospital services to a catchment area of Kerry, North Cork & West Limerick it services a population of approx. over 180,554. In addition, the Kerry area has quite a large visiting population – Bord Fáilte/ Shannon Development estimate there are approximately 2 million tourists visiting this region annually, principally during the summer months. The 24/7 Emergency department cares for 36,000 Emergency presentations average annual activity levels of approximately 13,000 Inpatient discharges, 11,000 Day Cases Presentations and 54,000 Outpatient Attendances.

This Model 3 hospital also provides medical & surgical day OPD which facilitates visiting Consultants. University Hospital Kerry is continually investing and developing the clinical services, to include a new CCU/HDU 6 bedded unit, new extensive laboratory unit, 6th theatre suite and a new purpose built oncology day unit which will complement the following existing services;

• 24/7 Emergency Department
• 76 Bed Acute Medicine (including 4 Bed Acute Stroke Unit)
• 8 Bed Acute Medical Assessment Unit
• 15 Bed Surgical Day Ward
• 5 Bed Intensive Care Unit
• 4 Bed Coronary Care / High Dependency Unit
• 38 Bed Maternity Unit
• 10 Cot Special Care Baby Unit
• 29 Paediatric Beds
• 5 Operating Theatres
• 11 Bed Endoscopy Day Unit
• 13 Bed Oncology Day Ward
• 12 Bed Dialysis Unit

The Kerry Specialist Palliative Care Service (KSPCS) provided is currently lead by three consultants, 24/7 on-call service which has proven of immense value to the hospital and community in improving palliative care services. The service is currently provided in the following settings:

• Specialist Palliative In Patient Unit
• Specialist Palliative Day Care Service
• Specialist Palliative Community Care Service
• Specialist Palliative Acute Care Service

University Hospital Kerry forms part of The South West Region provides acute hospital services to the population of Kerry and Cork

The 7 hospitals within this region are;

• Cork University Hospital
• Cork University Maternity Hospital
• University Hospital Kerry
• Mercy University Hospital
• South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital
• Bantry General Hospital
• Mallow General Hospital

The primary academic partner for the region is University College Cork.

This region has one major cancer centre in Cork University Hospital and one major trauma centre in Cork University Hospital, with an orthopaedic and trauma receiving unit at University Hospital Kerry. It has two model three hospitals in University Hospital Kerry, Mercy University Hospital and one elective hospital in the South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital. It also has two smaller hospitals in Bantry General Hospital and Mallow General Hospital.

Purpose of the Post

HSE South West is currently transforming the Operations function to ensure ambitious goals can be met. Operational Director will be responsible for driving key aspects of this change. The post holder will lead on day to day site management, balancing demand and capacity requirements and ensuring optimal patient flow throughout the site.

The Operational Director will be responsible management has a day-to-day operational role in providing hospital-wide leadership and responsibility for the safe management of patient flow pathways across the hospital.

The post will work as part of the operations team to ensure a seamless patient journey, to enable the hospital to meet the key strategic and operational objectives. They will have day-to-day operational responsibility for ensuring the smooth running of all aspects of capacity management and site management ensuring local and national standards are achieved. They will manage clinical and non-clinical emergencies. They will be required to balance demand management and capacity planning, whilst managing competing and conflicting priorities in terms of resources and timescales for delivery

Informal Enquiries

We welcome enquiries about the role.

Contact Ms Mary Fitzgerald, Hospital Manager , University Hospital Kerry

Email:UHK.GeneralManager@hse.ie

Tel: 066 7184163

For further information about the role.

Contact Ms Shauna Broderick, Staff Officer, People SouthWest

Email:shauna.broderick@hse.ie

Tel: 087 4370269

For enquiries relating to the recruitment process.