Deloitte chosen to provide ‘support services’ worth €8.2m for health record project

At present, Ireland is the only EU member state that does not provide access to electronic health data for its citizens via an online portal.

The HSE has awarded an €8.2m consultancy contract for 'support services' for Ireland’s incoming National Electronic Health Record system, before a main contractor to deliver that project has been identified.

Deloitte, one of the largest accounting and consultancy firms in the world, has secured an €8.18m three-year fixed price contract with the health service to aid in the delivery of the marquee €2bn programme, via the provision of business case development and procurement services.

Details of the contract were released to Cork East TD Liam Quaide, who said the public “deserves to know exactly what value is being delivered for this money”, while querying why the expertise for the project was not being developed in-house within the HSE.

The HSE’s One Health Record project had been mooted for several years and was officially announced last February by Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

At present, Ireland is the only EU member state that does not provide access to electronic health data for its citizens via an online portal.

When active, One Health Record will “hold a person’s full health and social care information in one place”, the HSE has said.

The record is to be used to replace paper records and disparate IT systems for the entire population, with staff able to record, update, and look up health information using just one system, while patients will be able to navigate multiple services more quickly with their data readily available via a centralised record.

Deloitte’s contract is set to run over 36 months, incurring costs of €4.46m in year one, €1.49m in year two, and €2.23m in year three.

One Health Record is not due to procure a contractor for its delivery until next year, though the HSE noted that Deloitte will not be in a position to bid for that contract.

Minister MacNeill previously described the issue of expertise regarding such a large project existing largely outside the HSE’s own personnel as a “very legitimate concern for any programme that leverages third parties to assist”.

“As this programme matures, the HSE will assign more and more of their own team to work on delivery on this programme, and specialists will also be hired into the HSE to reduce any reliance on third parties such as this,” she said.

“The HSE will ensure the correct balance is struck in the resourcing of the programme and that knowledge transfers form part of the delivery programme.” 

Digital reform essential 

A HSE spokesperson said that Deloitte had been selected following a mini-procurement competition and would provide “very specific skillsets” to the health record project, “to support the early, critical stages of the Electronic Health Record programme”.

Mr Quaide noted that the HSE had declined to outline how many individual Deloitte employees would be assigned to the project, nor what assessment had been made of the HSE’s capacity to perform the work internally.

“Major digital reform in healthcare is essential,” he said. 

“But public money should, as much as possible, be used to build lasting expertise and capacity within the public health system.

"At a time when frontline services are under extraordinary pressure, the public deserves to know exactly what value is being delivered for this money - how many consultants are involved, what hourly or daily rates are being charged, whether they are working exclusively on this programme,” he added.