HSE spent over €163m with linked agency firms during height of covid pandemic

Newly released data for 2021, the latest available, details the hiring of nurses, doctors, cleaners, ambulance staff and nursing home staff, among others.

Almost 500 firms offering agency health staff benefited from HSE contracts at the height of the covid pandemic, with one set of linked companies earning more than €163m.

Newly released data for 2021, the latest available, details the hiring of nurses, doctors, cleaners, ambulance staff and nursing home staff, among others.

It follows earlier reports by this newspaper of ongoing agency spend in units caring for vulnerable people. Inclusion Ireland has now called for this to be accounted for in disability services. 

Among the 489 companies who benefited in 2021 was global talent firm CPL, well-known for recruiting into the HSE.

The figures show agency spending under seven named pathways including CPL healthcare, CPL healthcare ltd and CPL healthcare limited. It comes to over €163m across the seven.

Recruitment firm Nurse on Call also benefited, with payments made through eight pathways. These included nurses for hospitals and older people. Total payments came to over €72.5m.

Agency staff were also hired through the Scottish Nursing Guild with a spend of €4,440,706. It has offices in Cork and Dublin. 

Some companies received smaller payments. McCreery Contract Cleaning was paid €36,309, with a number of other cleaning companies listed also.

Meanwhile Inclusion Ireland has raised concerns about the HSE’s growing spend on agency staff in disability services. 

In 2021, this came to €40,078,557, while this year for January to May the spend has already been €37,266,967.

Inclusion Ireland chief executive Derval McDonagh said: “People with an intellectual disability who rely on the disability workforce to access their right to independent living should have a right to consistent, familiar and skilled staff in their lives.” 

She called for “a cross Government workforce planning strategy to ensure that this right is met” instead of relying on temporary workers.

“For our members, all money spent should be justified, especially when so many people are waiting for their basic human rights to be recognised,” she warned.

A survey it carried out found 90% of people with an intellectual disability want to leave their parents’ home but there is no State funding for this.

“This has left hundreds of people living with elderly family members with no plan in place for their future,” she warned.

“Every cent invested should go towards rectifying these situations and the state needs to be accountable for that." 

All of these figures were released to Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane.

“There has been a massive growth in agency spending in hospitals, but also in mental health, primary care, and disability services,” he said.

“The health service needs an ambitious and realistic workforce plan to directly train, recruit, and retain the workers needed to safely staff the health service, and strict targets to significantly reduce runaway agency spending.” 

In a letter accompanying the data, Sarah Anderson, HSE corporate finance general manager said recruitment was “a constant challenge”. However she said the HSE was committed to “getting to levels of agency and overtime which is sustainable into 2025".