HSE performance committee refused to approve revised 2020 targets

The HSE’s performance and delivery committee refused a request to approve a list of new “achievable” targets for 2020 as a result of delays arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Medical Independent (MI) can report.

At its meeting on 23 October 2020, the minutes of which were seen by MI following a Freedom of Information request, the HSE’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) Ms Anne O’Connor discussed a report on proposed revised estimates of activity/targets for 2020, which was circulated to the committee prior to the meeting.

The COO said the report related to the national performance activity suite from the HSE’s National Service Plan 2020.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had considerable impact on the levels of service planned at the time of completion of National Service Plan 2020,” according to the minutes.

In this context and the ongoing work regarding appropriate measurement of performance, a review of achievable activity/targets for 2020 was presented for consideration by the committee.

However, the committee questioned the “appropriateness of revising these measures” and did not approve the change.

“It was instead requested that the work undertaken be incorporated into next year’s measures,” according to the minutes.

The COO also spoke to the committee about the Covid-19 daily data report, which was circulated prior to the meeting. The report represented the data in the Covid-19 dashboard, Covid-19 situational report and the Covid-19 intraday operations report.

“The committee reviewed the report and requested that going forward, the daily situational report should specify the number of Covid-19 cases and number of deaths occurring in HSE-run nursing homes,” according to the minutes.

“It was also requested that further data be provided on the quality of testing.”