HSE pays €1m for reports – and then ignores advice

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) forked out more than €1 million of taxpayers’ money on two reports on health reform – and then ignored the key recommendations.

To date, €871,2000 has been spent on the McKinsey report on Organising to Deliver Integrated Care.

A key recommendation of the McKinsey report is that healthcare be delivered in “6-10 regions with a catchment population ranging between 500,000– 700,000”. However, yesterday HSE director of human resources Seán McGrath said while they had initially decided on a six region model, this had now been reduced to four.

“The board of the HSE decided four was more suitable at this point in time rather than changing the model we had, in light of current financial circumstances,” he said.

A separate report carried out in the HSE South reviewing the delivery of acute care in Cork and Kerry recommended Cork University Hospital be the sole provider of acute care in the region. This was the recommendation of the €280,000 report by Horwath Consulting and Teamwork Management Services. The recommendation was set aside by the HSE and Kerry General Hospital is to retain all acute services.

Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bernard Allen TD, said he would be raising the cost of the McKinsey report with HSE chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, when he appears before the PAC in the Autumn.