Government ministers have targeted under performing hospital managers and consultants at Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick for their "poor performance" amid record levels of overcrowding.
Ministers say the managers are either "unable or unwilling" to deliver at a time when a record €23 billion has been spent on health.
Using new performance-tracking data, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and his officials have been touring some of the worst hospitals and speaking directly to managers as to why problems are not being resolved.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is understood to have accepted that there is an absence of local autonomy and hospital managers have no 'proper oversight or control' over the actions of consultants.
The Irish Examiner reports that sources have said that the new consultants’ contract is likely to give hospital CEOs a greater power over the doctors under them, but this is the subject of talks at present, with consultants keen to retain their autonomy.
