Maternity services delayed - Another fiasco on planet HSE

Over the weekend the BBC rebroadcast a documentary about Alan Bennett. In it, Bennett made a speech at the opening of a London health centre during which he sings the praises of Britain’s National Health Service. 

It is, he declares, an institution worth defending tooth-and-claw. How different his speech might have been in Dublin or Cork.

This morning we report, yet again, on a long-promised project that the HSE is, despite adequate funding, struggling to deliver. Deadlines have been missed, more are likely to be missed. The situation is so muddled, so up in a heap that the usual band-aid has been applied — send for the consultants.

The HSE engaged consultants because its staff did not have the expertise to “ensure a successful go-live” of a €35m IT system for maternity services in Dublin hospitals. This follows precedent — Deloitte were “support partners” to deliver the system at Cork University Maternity Hospital and University Hospital Kerry. CUMH staff needed an incredible 9,500 hours of training — remember, that’s just one hospital.

The most obvious question is why did the HSE staff

involved in instalation in Cork or Kerry not develop the

expertise to deliver the system elsewhere? Is the HSE IT

sector fit for purpose? If not why are they still on the payroll?

Bennett has chronicled life with a sharp eye for over half a century but even so, it is hard not to think he could understand the HSE — or, more to the point, why we put up with it.