Tallaght Hospital faces two reviews

Two separate reviews into why Tallaght Hospital spent millions of euro on non-tendered external consultancy work and ‘top-up’ payments for high-ranking staff are under way.

The new interim Tallaght board and the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) said the matters are being examined in the aftermath of Thursday’s investigation into the failure of patients by the crisis-hit hospital.

The first investigation is focusing on the decision to pay external consultancy firms €1.8m in 2010, the same year as the hospital faced a €5.8m deficit.