Case study

North Eastern Health Board

Leading change in the health service

Delivering organisational change by building critical leadership and management capabilities

The North Eastern Health Board's (now the HSE North Eastern Area) 7,000 staff provide health services in primary and community care as well as acute hospital services to 750,000 people living in the North Eastern area. Since 2003, PA Consulting Group (PA) has been supporting the development of managers in the North Eastern Area to deliver national and regional strategic priorities.

In the last few years, the growing population has put the North Eastern Area under real pressure to deliver quality health services. In addition to this challenge the Board had to begin implementing the National Health Strategy. The publication of the National Health Strategy - 'Quality and Fairness' - is a defining point in the evolution of the health service in Ireland. It marked the beginning of a reform programme that has since led to the most significant re-structuring of the health service in 35 years, with the explicit purpose of fundamentally improving the delivery of health services. In response, the Board developed its own strategy - A health Strategy for the North Eastern region - that strongly mirrored the national strategy while reflecting the specific needs of their catchment area.

Based on our experience of developing leadership and management capability to deliver organisational change, PA was appointed to work closely with the Board to design and deliver a Leadership Development Programme.