HSE spends over €80m on consultancy fees

THE Health Service Executive has spent €80.5 million on outside consultancy reports and advice since it was established — including more than €34.5m since the economic crisis began.

Figures obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information act show more than €40,000 was spent every day on consultancy reports since the HSE was set up in 2005.

This includes:

* €21.2m in 2005.

* €7.9m in 2006.

* €16.7m in 2007.

* €15.6m in 2008.

* €15.1m in 2009.

* €3.7m in the first six months of 2010.

Among the millions spent were:

* More than €6.5m to the Economic and Social Research Institute between January 2009 and June 2010 for the hospital inpatient enquiry (HIPE) and perinatal statistics systems.

* €1.52m to Karl Anderson, Maureen Lynott and McGrath Associates for separate “personalised” communications and HR advice to then HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm between January 2008 and June 2010.

* €649,000 to Ogilvy and Mather Ltd in 2009 for the “let someone know” mental health TV advertisement, website and poster campaign.

* €362,635 to Tribal Consulting Ltd in 2008 for “HSE leadership development”.

* €318,404 to Wilson Hartnell PR in 2008 for an STI/pregnancy “leaflet design”.

Among the major consultancy expenses in the first half of last year were €103,511 to HSE chief executive adviser Maureen Lynott’s company Lynott management consultancy and €90,314 to Karl Anderson for a “personalised consultancy” communication advice for Prof Drumm.

The two received €591,731.56 and €542,439.78 between January 2008 and June 2010 respectively.

A further €64,868 was also paid out during the six month period to Joseph Clarke for “GP consultancy services: locum fees”, €194,806 to PA Consulting for “ongoing maintenance” of the HSE’s own Health Stat system, and €92,063 to Compupac IT solutions for ICT helpdesk work.

This is despite the fact that the HSE already has a €138,000-a-year ICT national director position.

A HSE spokesperson said there has been a “tight control on consultancy expenditure” and that the first half of 2010 costs represents “less than one tenth of 1%” of the health service budget.

She added that the ESRI payment includes issues such as coding system maintenance and ESRI staff workloads, and that the “let someone know” mental health campaign has been a success.