HSE criticised for €153m spend as buildings lie idle
But they can’t say exactly how many buildings might be vacant because they don’t maintain a national database.
The Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said poor management of the health services property portfolio gave rise to situations such as in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, where three houses bought seven years ago to accommodate special needs adults were never used because there was no staff to run them and they were now in a state of disrepair.
Another example was Our Lady’s Hospital complex in Cork, the last section of which closed in 2004 without any plans put in place to sell it or use it. Vandals set fire to it earlier this year and security costs €6,000 a week.
“It is now the biggest derelict site in Cork city and property prices have gone through the floor so they’ll never see the value for it that they could have got,” said PAC chairman, Bernard Allen of Fine Gael.
The committee also highlighted the ongoing impasse over the new A&E department at the Mercy Hospital in Cork where failure to agree staffing arrangements in advance of completion meant a brand new facility was effectively “mothballed” and valuable hi-tech medical equipment was sitting around in boxes while patients endured “Dickensian” conditions in the old facility.
They also criticised the failure to agree in advance arrangements for the operation of a CAT scanner bought for Mallow General Hospital with the result that it has not been put into use. “€1.6m of equipment has been tied up for the last two years,” said Fianna Fáil’s Ned O’Keeffe.
In a report on health service spending, they say: “All future purchases of property and utilities should be accompanied by appropriate business plans and issues such as staffing requirements should be finalised before contracts to purchase are agreed.”
Another area of concern for the PAC is over-prescribing of medication.
Mr Allen said HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm had conceded the problem of over-prescribing was “huge”, particularly with antibiotics.
The report says the Department of Health needs to talk to the medical unions about reducing unnecessary prescriptions, and also says the Medical Council should apply ethical guidelines to stop doctors being influenced by pharmaceutical companies who offer perks for prescribing their products.
While doctors in public appointments are already bound by such ethics regulations, most GPs are not.
