Donal O'Shea recalled as a humble and modest man

Donal O’Shea, the former long-serving CEO of the North Western Health Board (NWHB), who passed away on Thursday, January 20, at Sligo University Hospital, played a key role over four decades in the development of health services in Ireland.
The influence which Donal O’Shea had on health care services development throughout a long, high level public services career has been described as “enormous” in one of many tributes paid to him, and he is regarded as having left a lasting legacy across the entire Irish Health Service.

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Background
A native of Cork, he was appointed CEO of the NWHB in 1974, he served in that position until 1997.
In his time as CEO of the NWHB which had responsibility for Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal and part of west Cavan, he proved an able leader.
His strategic planning and his innovative thinking saw the health service in the north west make a series of historic and often brave decisions, the delivery of community services, the roll out and recognition of health promotion and the establishment of community
workshops/training centres for the disabled.

Leading the way

An indication, if needed, of his ability and his work ethic, came in 1993 when he was also appointed CEO of the North Eastern Health Board and he carried out the functions of CEO of both Boards, the NWHB and the NEHB, until 1997.
He subsequently served as CEO of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, a new management structure for the Health Service in Dublin which had three subsidiary boards covering different parts of the eastern region.
He also served as Chairperson of the Health Education Bureau and Authority, the GMS Payments Board and Beaumont Hospital and was a long-term member of the Board of Comhairle na nÓspidéal which decided on the number and type of hospital consultant appointments.

In his early years he was Chief Electrical Engineer in the Dunlop factory in Cork and he spent a period working as an engineer with Phillips in Sweden. He joined the Western Health Board as Programme Manager for Special Hospitals in the early 1970’s and managed the mental health and elderly Hospital Services there before being appointed CEO of the NWHB in 1974.

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Adored his grandchildren

He was a brilliant communicator with a love of languages; he was fluent in Swedish and French, an Irish speaker with a great love not only for the Irish language but its music, traditions, and games.
For all that, Canon Tom Hever told mourners at his Funeral Mass how he was a “humble, modest man, who was happiest in the company of his wife Bairbre and their extended family; he loved nothing better than time spent in the garden at home in Rahaberna.
He adored his grandchildren, who affectionately called him ‘Dadó’.

A very humble family

“He had an incredible capacity for work as he created and built-up services that would offer vital health care to all. He became a kind of ‘lion figure’ and his name would be mentioned with great admiration and respect.
“Despite the status he achieved through hard work, he remained throughout his life, a very humble man who just loved family, home and gardening and I have no doubt that the rock of his life on which he built all, was his faith and his deep love for his God.”
Canon Hever recalled: “His life was filled with numerous achievements, mainly because he was gifted with a wonderful intellect, which he used to its fullest. There were achievements which he never spoke about himself or indeed allowed others to speak about, such as coming first in Ireland in the Leaving Cert in his year. As an academic, as an administrator, as a leader he excelled, doing so much especially in the area of health provision in our country and especially here in the north west.”
Canon Hever underlined Donal’s ethos of volunteerism, his deep faith and the role he played in his community and his church, where he served as a Minister of the Eucharist and as a Minister of the Word.

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Respect

Canon Hever said Donal had a profound respect for everybody’s role and the part they played and no matter how small the part each person played, each person was needed, and none should be discarded or ignored.
Former Minister for Finance, Ray MacSharry, among the many political figures to recognise Donal’s contribution described him as “the top performing health executive in his time,” whose expertise was sought nationally, while others have recognised the major role he played in establishing cross-border health services.
In an interview given in 2004 where he reflected on the role and success of the North Western Health Board, Donal was first asked about his impressions when he came to the NWHB in 1974:
“For a start, it wasn’t a natural region - it was one of the first public or private bodies to be set up covering the counties of Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo. I don’t think they had been put together as a region for anything before that other than for tourism,” he said in an interview.

Centralisation and decentralisation

Under his direction the policy of the board was to centralise those things that benefited from centralising and decentralise everything else. The previous thinking might have been to centralise in terms of hospitals for the elderly, central units for learning disability or children.
“We went the other way. We dismantled the centralised services in the very big geriatric hospital in Stranorlar. One of the policies taken on by the Board was to say Donegal is so dispersed you should not have a major centralised unit, you should have a series of small units around the county, so we started the process to build up units across Donegal.”
The concept was also applied to services for those with learning disabilities and psychiatric patients.
“We literally transformed the psychiatric services from being hospital based to community based.”
This initiative was the cornerstone for the programme for the development of new primary care centres which are now to be seen in many parts of the north west.

Never closed a hospital

Donal stressed that the Health Board decided very early on to bring in the GPs as “a very important and integral part of delivering services, so GPs were never seen as ‘contracting in’; they were always seen as part of the Health Board system.”
On the other hand, acute hospitals were centralised on the basis of safety and quality in Sligo and Letterkenny.
He said that the NWHB never closed a hospital: “We never actually closed a hospital, what we did was build up alternative services (in Letterkenny and Sligo) and people - patients and doctors - literally voted with their feet. We could do things differently.”

Greenfield site

He said that there was a belief that in terms of developing services, producing decentralised services and integrated services, the NWHB was a greenfield site so it could go in directions that other boards couldn’t.
The Board also encouraged people from the region to take an active part in working groups, working parties, specialist groups, committees and commissions operating at national level.
Among other highlights he listed were: the first board to directly employ social workers; the first to appoint a member of the management team with specific responsibility for health promotion; the first to set up its own community workshops for the disabled.
It was also very heavily involved with voluntary organisations from a very early stage. “We employed people to encourage the setting up and the growth of voluntary organisations. We used them as an integral part of our service delivery.”
As for the perceived disadvantage of the NWHB’s remoteness from Dublin and proximity to Northern Ireland, he said the Board saw it as an advantage, addressing cross-border co-operation and collaboration - from the word ‘go’.

CAWT

A key initiative was Donal O’Shea’s role in establishing Cooperation And Working Together (CAWT) in 1992 and together with the chief executives of the then North Eastern Health Board and the Western Health and Social Services Board (Derry) and the Southern Health and Social Services Board (Armagh).
In more recent times this organisation has had major success in supporting the development of both radiotherapy and emergency cardiology surgical services for people from the north west, located at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.
He claimed the Board “persistently and consistently ran a reasonably slim central organisation. We continued to delegate out to the field as much as we possibly could. A lot of work that was done in the head offices of other boards was done away from head office in the north west. That gave us more time to deal with the policy issues and big picture stuff rather than having to be involved too much in the details. The detail was all handled out in the field.”
Summing up his time in the NWHB, he said he was very proud to have been associated with the Board, stressing that there was a very good marriage between the Board, its services and the people using them.
“In the context of the job we were given to do, I think we did it well,” he said.

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Glowing tributes
The tributes paid to him since his death, together with the insight gained from what he himself has put on the public record, provide, at least, a valuable reflection on the extent of his contribution.
Beloved husband of Bairbre (née O'Connor) and dear father of Sinéad, Dónall, Eoghan Conor and Laoise and much-loved Dadó of Líle, Bríon, Róise, Danny, Luke, Molly, Éanna, Fia and Finn, sympathy is extended to them and to all who mourn him.
He will be sadly missed and remembered with love by his wife, sons, daughters, grandchildren, brothers, sister, sons-in-law Paul and Oliver, daughters-in-law Caitríona and Jan, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives, and many friends

Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé