CHI chief executive 'dismayed' to be accused of misleading PAC

Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) chief executive Lucy Nugent. Picture: CHI

The CEO of Children’s Health Ireland has said she was “dismayed” to be accused of misleading the public accounts committee (PAC) after she appeared before it late last month.

It comes after PAC chair, John Brady, said he had “strong views” about the possibility that the committee could have been misled.

He had questioned the CEO, Lucy Nugent, on further reviews of CHI practice, to which she said there were two reports outstanding while one was completed.

However, newspaper reports in the wake of the meeting said there was an internal CHI report that a CHI consultant had allegedly referred public patients he was caring for to his private practice.

On May 29 — a week on from the CHI PAC meeting — Mr Brady said Ms Nugent’s response had been definitive and he was concerned the committee had been misled.

The PAC then agreed to recall CHI to further discuss the matter, alongside the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

However, in subsequent correspondence to PAC, Ms Nugent said she believed the question was related to orthopaedic services, and not wider CHI reports, while apologising for not being “clear in this regard”.

Ms Nugent said: “In relation to the recent leaking of a confidential report into another service which was conducted four years ago, it was largely a HR examination of a service and not a review.

Whilst I was unaware of the report at the time, it does show that when there were issues within a department actions were taken to resolve same. 

Ms Nugent criticised what she described as “inaccurate media reporting” surrounding the consultant involved and the NTPF.

“I wish to clarify that these clinics did not take place in the Consultant’s private rooms. They occurred in a public clinic in Crumlin hospital on a Saturday. It was a waiting list initiative for an outpatient appointment only,” Ms Nugent wrote.

“The NTPF funded the hospital for this clinic/initiative and there was no charge to patients. This was over and above the consultant’s contractual hours. There are no direct payments to CHI staff from NTPF.” 

The NTPF has now asked all public hospitals to report to it on use of funding by Monday. Their overall budget for this year to tackle waiting lists is €230m.

Cork University Hospital received €1,463,857 in funding last year from the fund. 

A spokeswoman for HSE Southwest said there is “approximately €200,000 outstanding”.

When selecting patients to benefit, priority is given to time-critical patients and people who have been waiting longest.

“Payment rates for consultants and other staff working in NTPF internal clinics are finalised with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). CUH applies all HSE terms and conditions in respect of pay,” she said.

The NTPF temporarily paused funding to CHI, resuming this earlier this week. 

On Wednesday, it said funding has been paused at a second hospital since April 11. 

A HSE internal audit team has been working with the hospital — reported to be Beaumont Hospital in Dublin — since then. 
The HSE said the hospital alerted the fund about the problem, and this information was then shared with the HSE and Department of Health.