‘They think they own the hospital’
Opposition TDs say the HSE audit of Holles Street shows ‘everything that’s wrong with public-private health system’ – the NMH ‘wants the cash but not the accountability’
THE damning HSE audit into the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street demonstrates ‘everything that is wrong with our public-private healthcare model’, a leading opposition TD has said.
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall strongly criticised the hospital after the publication of a HSE internal audit which found that the NMH Master Rhona Mahony’s salary top-up of €40,000 had violated public pay policy.
The report also found that four senior executives received salary top-ups in violation of public pay regulations and rejected Dr Mahony’s explanation that her payment came from fees from the hospital’s semi-private clinic.
The audit also complained that NMH bosses failed to hand over documentation when requested and that the HSE met continual delays in obtaining clarification to queries it raised.
Ms Shortall called on Health Minister Simon Harris to get to ‘grips with the opaque and unfair pay structures and governance arrangements in the voluntary hospital sector’.
She said the audit demonstrates in ‘stark terms’ elements of our ‘broken healthcare model’, where public money is being taken by voluntary hospitals ‘to benefit staff and private patients at the expense of public patients’.
She described practices such as salary top-ups as remarkable, especially when the HSE finds that they amount to violations of public pay policy.
She added: ‘It is clear that many voluntary hospitals do not see themselves as accountable to the HSE, even though they are largely funded with public money.
‘It’s high time that the Minister for Health got to grips with the opaque and unfair pay structures and governance arrangements in the voluntary hospital sector. The State is about to invest €300million in a new National Maternity Hospital which the existing Holles Street management will be part of. We cannot simply shrug our shoulders and allow business as usual to prevail when it comes to public funding of our health services.’
Other issues highlighted in the highly critical report included the blurred boundaries in the relationship between the hospital and its neighbouring semiprivate clinic, along with the potential for possible conflicts of interest given the fact that the Master and two other NMH governors are also members of the clinic’s board.
Former Lord Mayor of Dublin Brendan Carr, who has repeatedly called for full State ownership of the proposed new maternity hospital on St Vincent’s campus, described the NMH’s attitude as ‘arrogant’.
The Labour councillor previously sat on the hospital’s board of governors during his 12-month tenure as Lord Mayor, which came to an end last month.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Mr Carr described the NMH’s actions as ‘cynical’.
Mr Carr added: ‘They have a very arrogant attitude towards everything and here it is again.
‘That they want the taxpayer to pay €300million for a new hospital for them but they don’t want to be answerable to anyone in relation to their wages and that kind of stuff.
‘I think it really highlights the fact that the number of people who are running that hospital seem to feel that it is their own private enterprise but it’s not. It’s the National Maternity Hospital and that’s what it should be.
‘And it should be completely transparent in the way that it is run, including wages.’
A spokesperson for the NMH robustly defended the hospital yesterday and said that the hospital is ‘fully accountable to the HSE for all of its activity which is funded by the HSE, which is a majority of its activity’.
‘Broken healthcare model’ ‘They don’t think they are accountable’
‘But it is an independent hospital, which does a considerable amount of non-HSE funded activity, and it is not accountable to the HSE for its overall governance and the day-to-day operation.
‘This is the same position with all independent voluntary hospitals.’
In relation to the new hospital and its proposed site at St Vincent’s hospital, the spokesman added: ‘When the hospital moves to St Vincent’s, the current Holles Street premises, which is not State-owned, will be sold and the proceeds given to the State in the context of the state funding of a new hospital’.
Krysia Lynch, chair of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services Ireland, said that unless the governance issue is sorted out for the new NMH, ‘there will always be problems’.
She added: ‘Aims Ireland calls on the Minister for Health to ensure that all maternity hospitals – voluntary sector or otherwise – are obliged to provide the HSE with suitable documentation when required.’