Vote 40 - Health Service Executive HSE

Irish Indo 28th October 08 - page 14

HSE use of Taxis

122 Million on taxis and buses since 2003

2007 figures

East Coast - €4,042,743
South West - €1,576,304
Midland - €3,571,836
Northern - €2,327,446
North East - €5,090,612
North West - €2,666,800
West - €3,264,904
Midwest - €1,337,457
South - €3,479,679
Southeast - €4,180,000

Total for 2007 was €31.6 million

Also
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HSE paid €46 Mill to private consultants in last 3 years.

Maura McGrath was paid €590,976 for a contract in 06+07

Mr. Anderson 's contract allowed him 135 days per year at €1,207 per day, which jumped to €1,222 in october 2006.

Profesor Drumm claimed €34,568 in expenses for board meetings between 05 and 07 despit missing two meetings.

The Department of Health and Children complete press release on the budgetary changes

http://www.dohc.ie/press/releases/2008/20081014b.html

HSE bill of €3m for three troubled teenagers

THREE troubled teens at a Health Service Executive detention centre are costing taxpayers almost €1 million each per year.

Despite swingeing budget restrictions, including an unprecedented series of education cuts whose effects will include raising the pupil teacher ratio, the HSE is this year splashing out €2.8m to run Coovagh House in Limerick — which houses just three youths.

That’s a nightly bill of more than €2,500 per teenage client — many times higher than the rate at five-star hotels.

A spokesman for the HSE said they have to fill 28 full-time posts in order to run Coovagh House.
..
The HSE funds a number of high-support residential centres around the country, at a total cost of more than €350,000 per week, and regular inspections are carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority’s (HIQA) social services inspectorate.

The HSE said the educational centre on the campus is financed by the Department of Education and is separate from the Coovagh House secure unit.

Examiner

I think comparisons to hotel prices, while bandied about alot, are unhelpful. It is comparing apples and oranges. A litre of Coca Cola is more expensive than a litre of oil but that doesn't exactly mean anything.

That said, the amount that the above is costing does seem excessive and surely could be reduced at the same time as providing a better service for those teenagers. I know the Youth Justice section of the Department of Justice are investing alot over the coming years so hopefully improvements will be seen.

What is this transport cost referring to ? Does Dr. Reilly have the details ?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0424/hse.html

A few taxi drivers I have nmet have indicated that they believe the "Health Boards" are funding African immigrants to buy taxi plates. This sounds off the wall to me. One guy said that he knew of a car dealer who had been paid with a HSE cheque. Can anyone knock this on the head or clarify the real issue.

Also, fair play to Brendan Drumm for missing only two meetings in 2005, 2006, 2007. His attendance rates are a credit to the public service!

He probably gets his onus based on attendance. The place is run like a national school so I wouldn't be surprised.


That sounds completely off the wall about taxi drivers. Certainly in the simplistic manner that it is described.

Transport costs would be huge for the HSE, they would be paying all the Petrol for Ambulances, for Social Workers, they pay an allowance for house calls to GMS patients by General Practitioners etc etc etc etc.

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

A few taxi drivers I have nmet have indicated that they believe the "Health Boards" are funding African immigrants to buy taxi plates. This sounds off the wall to me. One guy said that he knew of a car dealer who had been paid with a HSE cheque. Can anyone knock this on the head or clarify the real issue.

The grant to buy taxi plates seems to an urban myth which you will hear across the world.
As for buying a car from a HSE cheque, I remember this coming up on P.ie before in relation to a garage in Ennis.
The story was quite sketchy and the suggestion was made that, if the the story is true, perhaps the gentleman with the cheque is a doctor?

johnfás wrote:

Transport costs would be huge for the HSE, they would be paying all the Petrol for Ambulances, for Social Workers, they pay an allowance for house calls to GMS patients by General Practitioners etc etc etc etc.

They also have to pay taxis for dialysis patients to attend hospital 3 times per week.
Harney hinted this may be cut back, but there was, rightly, uproar amoungst dialysis patients. I wouldn't put it past her to try it again though.
I can understand why it is should be means tested or whatever, but elderly people rely on the service. Also surveys in Europe have shown that one of the biggest stresses for dialisys patients is transport.

It has to be bore in mind too, that from time to time, some people won't feel well after a session and can't drive.

Mark Murphy, of the Irish Kidney Assoc, has pointed out though that due to a shortage of places in the midlands, dialisys patients are being ferried up to Dublin 3 times a week. It would be just cheaper to expand the units in Tullamore, etc.

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2008/03/30/story31649.asp
http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=9562

Of course, maybe Mary Harney hopes that by having dialisys units overcrowded we will all shell out €1350 per week to attend private dialisys units.

I knew about the costs in patient transport but the news story above refers only to staff transport costs so I was under the assumption that patient transport is dealt with separately.

eoinmn wrote:

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

A few taxi drivers I have nmet have indicated that they believe the "Health Boards" are funding African immigrants to buy taxi plates. This sounds off the wall to me. One guy said that he knew of a car dealer who had been paid with a HSE cheque. Can anyone knock this on the head or clarify the real issue.

The grant to buy taxi plates seems to an urban myth which you will hear across the world.
As for buying a car from a HSE cheque, I remember this coming up on P.ie before in relation to a garage in Ennis.
The story was quite sketchy and the suggestion was made that, if the the story is true, perhaps the gentleman with the cheque is a doctor?

Much as I suspected. Thanks for the clarification.

The Irish Times this morning reports that the HSE can save €350 million by cutting things such as those below.

HSE wants to halve overtime in €350m savings plan

The HSE has received a much lower level of increase in exchequer funding for 2009 than has been the case in recent years. It has also been told to find the funding for a 3.5 per cent increase due to its 110,000 staff next September from its own resources.

This is expected to cost it more than €100 million.

Earlier this month The Irish Times revealed that the HSE had proposed a new cost-containment plan which included introducing new restrictions on recruitment, reviewing contracts of temporary staff and reforming annual leave, sick leave and expenses arrangements.

However, the confidential document did not spell out precise costings for the measures proposed.

In a presentation to unions last week the HSE said that it wanted to generate about €350 million in savings from work practice reforms and efficiency measures.

It proposed ending paid meal breaks for non-consultant hospital doctors and estimated that this could generate €25 million.

The HSE said that ending the payment of a living-out allowance for non-consultant hospital doctors could realise €12 million while the suspension of a €4,000 training grant could produce €16 million.

The HSE also argued that in some hospitals there were various "layers of on-call cover". It said that this involved a number of grades of non-consultant hospital doctors being on call in different specialities at any one time. It suggested it could save €100,000 per year by removing each "layer" in each hospital.

The HSE has also forecast that the introduction of a centralised procurement system could save €25 million. However, this could have implications for administrative staff, represented by Impact, who currently arrange procurement contracts on a local basis.

The HSE maintained that a reduction in overtime by 50 per cent could generate savings of about €110 million. Irish Times

Typical crap huh.

It puts me in mind of a mechanic tuning a car. It can run a two kilometers per hour so the mechanic tinkers and tinkers with it until it can travel at two kilometers per hour efficiently. Then the car is accelerated to three miles per hour and the mechanic starts all over, etc. etc... Now substitue the car with an ambulance, take the petrol out of it, sack the driver and don't bother teaching the paramedic any medical skills - voila - you have our health service.

johnfás wrote:

I knew about the costs in patient transport but the news story above refers only to staff transport costs so I was under the assumption that patient transport is dealt with separately.

Yeah, sorry about that. I've dialysis on the brain right now.

Auditor #9 wrote:

The HSE also argued that in some hospitals there were various "layers of on-call cover". It said that this involved a number of grades of non-consultant hospital doctors being on call in different specialities at any one time. It suggested it could save €100,000 per year by removing each "layer" in each hospital.

Meanwhile, the government signed up to this daft partnership deal to give all public servants a 6% pay rise.

Unfortunately no figures but some report from the Examiner brings us this

‘Avoidable’ charges costing taxpayer

TAXPAYERS’ money is being wasted because of avoidable pre-trial applications in court cases involving local authorities and the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Master of the High Court has said.


Master Edmund Honohan SC, who deals daily with hundreds of pre-trial applications in court cases, has said he makes costs orders every day against local authorities and the HSE in applications where costs were wasted.

No client can afford “no expense spared” litigation in a recession but public bodies do not appear to be getting the value for money that private clients can expect, he said.

Mr Honohan said such costs as he had referred to are “avoidable” and it was taxpayers’ money being wasted. Such costs are not incurred with the same frequency in litigation involving private sector clients, he added.
Examiner

Something to google I suppose

Irish Times:

HSE redundancy scheme to extend to hospitals

THE PLANNED voluntary redundancy programme for surplus administrative staff in the Health Service Executive (HSE) will be extended to personnel at hospital and community level, Minister for Health Mary Harney has told the Dáil.
..

"It will apply to staff at corporate HSE and also to staff at hospital and community level," she said.

Ms Harney said initiatives that resulted in improved efficiencies and reduction of duplication at all levels of the HSE would form part of the health authority's plans to modify its structures, which were announced last summer.

This includes merging the existing hospital and community pillars at national and regional level.

"One such example is a plan to create single unified organisation structures between a number of hospitals. The aim of this model is to ensure that health service delivery is planned and organised on the basis of a single entity, thus optimising the use of resources, streamlining decision making, harvesting the benefits of critical mass and avoiding wasteful duplication.

"It makes sense that if two hospitals are going to operate as a unified entity, then they do not need duplication of payroll, personnel, IT offices and many other backroom services. This will lead to efficiencies of between 10 per cent-20 per cent in administration costs," the Minister told Fine Gael TD Joe Carey in her written answer.
..

Meanwhile, trade unions and the health service executive are to meet again tomorrow to discuss controversial work practice reform plans put forward by management, aimed at saving around €350 million.

Among a number of proposals put forward, health service management is seeking to reduce overtime across all grades by 50 per cent. It also wants to save €50 million by ending special grants, payments and allowances made to non-consultant hospital doctors. The HSE is also seeking greater scope to re-deploy personnel within the organisation.

The HSE's national director of human resources, Seán McGrath, told staff in a memo last week that the organisation had to end work practices that had no place in today's economic climate, and stop paying for things it could not afford.

Unions have put forward alternative measures including ending the subsidy provided to private patients in public hospitals, which could save around €100 million
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1201/1227910421516.html

Quote :

It makes sense that if two hospitals are going to operate as a unified entity, then they do not need duplication of payroll, personnel, IT offices and many other backroom services. This will lead to efficiencies of between 10 per cent-20 per cent in administration costs," the Minister told Fine Gael TD Joe Carey in her written answer.

- Mary Harney.

It is amazing that someone who thinks that is giving away millions of tax payers money to rich individuals to build duplicate hospitals next to the ones we already have.

It'd be good to get a comparison of how the health service of other countries compares with this sort of expenditure on personal communications advisers, consultancy and so on.



http://www.examiner.ie/Ireland/idojcwmhcw/rss2/

In the first six months of last year, the HSE paid €83,895 to Prof Drumm’s personal communications adviser Karl Anderson. Mr Anderson is paid a monthly rate of more than €16,000. Contracted by the HSE for 183 days’ work, Mr Anderson has earned in excess of €600,000 since 2005.

Another adviser to Prof Drumm, Maureen Lynott, was paid a total of €126,608 in the first six months of 2008. Ms Lynott, a former chairwoman of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, earned €317,005 in 2007 and €264,638 in 2006 for her services, bringing her total to well over €700,000 since 2006.

Human resources consultant Maureen McGrath was paid €147,828 for the first six months of 2008. This despite the fact that the HSE already has a national director of human resources, Seán McGrath.

The list of external consultants used by the HSE shows a large number are hired for HR consultancy purposes. In 2006 and 2007, Ms McGrath’s company was paid €590,976 for its services.

Public relations firms have also benefited from being on the HSE books. In 2007, Wilson Hartnell public relations firm was paid €481,812 for "public relations support" to the HSE.

In the same year, Janet Hughes was paid in the region of €17,500 for her public relations advice.

Phil Flynn, the former banker and trade union leader, who was investigated as part of the Garda inquiry into IRA money-laundering as a result of the Northern Bank robbery in 2005, is also on the books of the HSE.

In 2008, Mr Flynn was paid €52,126 for mediation and arbitration services in negotiations between the HSE and the public service trade union, IMPACT.

The extent of the spend on outside consultants comes as the HSE held a special meeting to discuss a range of cost-cutting measures including possible cuts to core pay, overtime, patient services and pay for junior doctors.

Speaking following the meeting, Prof Drumm said as the economy worsened it was very difficult to predict precisely what the deficit will be. He said the HSE would brief the Government as to the extent of the financial challenge facing the organisation and "will propose a series of actions in order to redress the emerging situation".

"While the economic situation poses significant challenges, the HSE will seek to minimise the impact on services," the statement read.

Millions pissed away on external PR & HR. Obscene really. Well found, Audi.

There was a HSE member on Pat Kenny recently defending it according to the Examiner below.


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Committee to probe €51m HSE consultants bill
by Conall Ó Fátharta

http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/idojcwqlmh/

THE Public Accounts Committee is to question the HSE on the amount it spends on external public relations and consultants.

Since 2005, the HSE has spent more than e51 million on spin doctors, human resources and a wide variety of other management consultancies.

In the first six months of last year, the HSE paid a staggering e83,895 to chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm’s personal communications adviser Karl Anderson, while another personal advisor, Maureen Lynott, was paid e126,608.

Human resources consultant Maureen McGrath was paid e147,828 for the first six months of 2008. This is despite the fact that the HSE already has a National director of human resources, Seán McGrath.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Bernard Allen, has called on Prof Drumm to explain the spending in light of the e1.1 billion deficit the HSE is facing this year.

"I believe the long-suffering Irish people dependent on the health service are owed an explanation from Prof Drumm and senior management as to the level of spending on advisers and personal communications people," he said.