CEO apologises for hospital buying €1.4m of services from staff-owned firm with no formal contract

Professor Mary Day  will add that on occasion, due to unforeseen circumstances, the hospital must 'balance the need for public procurement with the need to respond immediately to urgent demand for scans in order to avoid potentially harmful delays in the diagnosis and treatment of our patients'. File photo: Derek Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

The head of one of Dublin’s largest hospitals has apologised after the institution paid a company owned by its own staff more than €1.4m without a formal contract, but said the payment was driven by “urgent patient needs”.

Professor Mary Day, chief executive of St James’s Hospital, will tell the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that, in paying €1.44m to the company for diagnostic services, the hospital “did not meet the standards expected of us”.