HSE to roll out €400m system Martin ‘put brakes on’

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) is planning to spend up to €400 million on an IT system that former Health Minister Micheál Martin ordered stopped because he feared costs would spiral out of control.

The Hospital Information System (HIS) is an “integrated patient management system” that will allow individuals’ records be computerised and shared between hospitals. The HSE believes its implementation nationwide is crucial.

According to the Health Department, the system was first proposed by health board executives in October 2003.

The department was told implementing the system in all 11 health board regions would cost in the region of €330m, with a further €56m needed for software licences and support services.

But at the start of 2004, Mr Martin, apparently fearing the project could run over budget, “put the brakes” on it, according to his successor in Health, Tánaiste Mary Harney.

“The cost of that project was going to escalate to approximately €400m and he put the brakes on it,” she told the Dáil on Tuesday.

“It most definitely was stopped at that stage,” a department spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Martin agreed with that assessment.

The health boards, meanwhile, were amalgamated into the HSE, which subsequently decided to push ahead with the HIS.

A HSE spokesman last night took issue with the Department of Health’s suggestions that the project had ever been stopped.

“I think that is a misunderstanding,” he said. “The HSE’s position is that nobody put the brakes on anything at all.”

Rather, he said, the department had taken a long time to make a decision. Once the HSE came into being, it was entitled to decide the matter for itself.

Earlier this year, the Finance Department cleared the way for the HSE to sign contracts worth €56m over the next 10 years with a company called iSoft.

This covers “software licences, implementation services and software support” for HIS over the period in question.

But that is only an element of the wider project, as it does not cover necessary hardware or the cost of installation.

In a written response to questions earlier this week, the HSE said: “€400m is the cost for the full roll-out of the integrated patient management system.”

The spokesman later added that the HSE was proceeding with the system because it was “a necessity”, and “not a luxury”.

He said: “This is an incredibly important application for improving patient services.”

In a further statement last night, the HSE added that €400m would be “the outer limit of expenditure”.

The only contract signed to date, it added, was the €56m deal with iSoft.

“No other contract has been signed and any others to be signed would have to be approved by Health and Finance.”