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The HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid raised concern over the National Public Health Emergency Team’s (NPHET) commitment to increase the number of Covid-19 tests per week to 100,000.
The concern was expressed in a letter to the Secretary General at the Department of Health on Sunday 19 April.
The correspondence has been published following several requests from Labor Leader Alan Kelly, who described it as “explosive” in the Dáil this afternoon.
Labor Party leader Alan Kelly says letters referencing governance and tensions between groups managing the Covid-19 crisis are ‘explosive’. He says he has ‘real concerns about governance’. | Follow live #coronavirus updates: https://t.co/bgB6t2gMJ7 pic.twitter.com/QYDIJFjjPk
– RTÉ News (@ belongws) May 14, 2020
Mr Reid wrote that he was taken by surprise by Dr Tony Holohan’s letter (received at 8.50pm) on Friday 17 April and also by the NPHET press conference that spoke about increasing testing.
He said these directions on testing were at odds with what was discussed at Cabinet sub-committee level and in meetings with Secretary General to the Government Martin Fraser.
Mr Reid said that he was “extremely disappointed that these understandings appear not to have been respected”.
He said the move “effectively attempted to commit the HSE to an intensity of implementation which bears absolutely no resemblance to that which we previously discussed and has taken no account of what can be achieved”.
Also, in a letter sent the next day to Minister for Health Simon Harris, on 20 April, HSE chairperson Ciarán Devane suggested to the minister that improvements needed to be made “to the nature of the relationship between NPHET and its stakeholders, including the HSE “
Mr Devane said in his letter that it had been clear to the HSE board for a while, that the operational requirements had at times not adequately been considered at the center of NPHET’s decision making.
He said that a determination had been announced in public, which went even further than the letter, which the HSE was surprised to receive after the event.
Mr Devane said it cut across and pre-empted an agreed process regarding developing an implementation plan to meet a target of 100,000 Covid-19 tests a week.
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Kelly said that the letters from the CEO and chair of the HSE outlined their concerns that the agreed process for testing had not been respected.
Minister Harris said he was very satisfied that NPHET was working extremely well with the HSE.
I added that he did not agree that the letters were explosive, but instead showed that people were working extraordinarily hard.
Mr Kelly quoted Mr Reid saying he was “very much taken by surprise” by the NPHET press conference on 17 April when Dr Holohan announced that 100,000 tests per week was the target.
Mr Reid said this was “at odds with the process jointly engaged with the Government Cabinet committee and with Secretary General Martin Fraser” and it was also “at odds with process in place with the HSE board”.
In the letter, I said: “I am extremely disappointed that these understandings appear not to have been respected.”
Mr Kelly told the Dáil that the HSE was basically saying that agreed processes were not being respected.
He also said that the minister and the Taoiseach had denied there was tension with the Chief Medical Officer.
Mr Harris said he had acknowledged tension and I asked when there was not tension between officials, back and forth in a pandemic.
I’ve agreed with Mr Kelly that NPHET minutes should be published sooner.
Additional reporting Fergal Bowers, Sandra Hurley
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