Launch of Developing Emergency Medicine in Ireland – Strategic Objectives for the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2019 and decided it needed a document to outline its strategic direction for the next 5 years. Creating the document involved extensive consultation with the membership and the findings of this consultation were presented at the IAEM Annual Scientific Meeting in October 2019. The need for the Association and its members who staff Ireland’s Emergency Departments to be at the front line of the COVID 19 pandemic has inevitably resulted in both the document and the launch being delayed. Unfortunately, the recent cyberattack on the HSE resulted in the cancellation of the planned launch date as ED clinical staff struggled to provide patient care in the absence of the normal ICT infrastructure.
The document describes the achievements of the Association over its history and the evolution of Emergency Medicine in Ireland. It also points to the challenges for Emergency Medicine and lays out the strategic direction for the Association in further developing and optimising Emergency Medicine in Ireland.
The strategy involves 5 key objectives so that the Association will:
- COMMUNICATE with patients and the general public about what to expect from Emergency Medicine;
- DESCRIBE a system of Emergency Medicine in Ireland that ensures every person has timely access to quality emergency care;
- ADVOCATE for patients by highlighting the adverse impact of inadequate resources;
- Further DEVELOP training and research in Emergency Medicine; and
- STRENGTHEN both internal IAEM structures and relationships with other bodies that have a role in Irish Emergency Medicine
The Association’s Executive will now develop an implementation plan to address these strategic objectives and reflect that fact that the different objectives have short, medium and long term deliverables. The strategy document will be launched as a virtual launch at 13:00hrs on 7th July 2021 – further details of which are available here.
