Donnelly backs Fórsa's call for audit of HSE spend on external experts
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It comes after the 'Irish Examiner' reported that CUH spent over €608,000 in just three months on consultancy services from PWC, an arrangement which continues although the hospital has declined to share the latest total expenditure.
While this has been in place, CUH was so overcrowded that patients had to queue just to enter the hospital car park, with security guards directing cars.
The environment has been described as “out of control” by the INMO, with patients sleeping on window sills in the emergency department due to a lack of beds in the hospital.
Speaking to the in Galway on Friday, Mr Donnelly said he discussed the payments with the HSE.
“It is a lot of money. [HSE CEO Bernard Gloster] acknowledged that in committee earlier this week,” Mr Donnelly said.
“He is taking a look to ensure that the spend on consultants services is on what it should be on, which is bringing in external expertise to individual projects and individual initiatives.”
Fórsa issued a call on Friday at its health and welfare conference for an audit of all HSE spending on private consultancy firms following the revelations around CUH and PWC.
Mr Donnelly, who attended the conference, said he would have “no issue with that whatsoever”.
“We have to endeavour, be it on consultant fees or agency fees, or indeed any spending within the HSE, we have to make sure that we are always getting the very best value for money,” he said.
“So audits on any spending areas I certainly would encourage.”
Fórsa has already written to its members working in CUH, instructing them not to engage with the PWC consultants.
The union’s head of health and welfare Ashley Connolly said: “What we have is external private consultants in doing what we will maintain is our member’s positions, our members’ work and that they were then asking our members to engage with them.
“We’ve seen requests whereby people were asked to meet them, and that wasn’t going to be tolerated by the trade unions.”
In her speech to the Fórsa health and welfare conference, Ms Connolly urged the HSE to invest in its own staff instead. She said:
“Reports in the media this week revealed the continued reliance by the Department of Health and HSE on external private consultants.
“Minister, this must stop. It’s completely unacceptable to see upwards of hundreds of thousands of euro spent on external consultants, rather than investing in your own employees.”
She added: “We call on you, minister, to ensure there is a full audit of the use of external private consultants.”
Mr Gloster told the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday that he is aware of the situation at CUH. He said the HSE spent “in the region of an expenditure of €120m to €180m” on management consulting last year.