NTPF ready to restore funding to Beaumont Hospital when it receives ‘assurances over use'
National Treatment Purchase Fund
(NTPF) is ready to restore funding for insourcing initiatives to tackle waiting lists at
Beaumont Hospital
when it receives sufficient assurances regarding its appropriate use, the organisation's chairman Don Gallagher is to tell the Dáil
Public Accounts Committee
today.
The provision of such NTPF funding for Beaumont has been paused since April on foot of what were described as 'potential financial irregularities'.
The
HSE
this week defined insourcing as the practice of engaging external companies or third-party providers to deliver services often outside of normal working hours using public-owned facilities and equipment. It often employs existing healthcare personnel on premium rates.
In an opening statement to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, Mr Gallagher will say that upon learning of 'potential issues in relation to NTPF-funded insourcing work at Beaumont Hospital, it immediately suspended all insourcing work and payments at Beaumont and informed the Department of Health and HSE of its concerns'.
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He will say that HSE internal auditors are currently carrying out a detailed review in Beaumont.
'We are ready and willing to recommence insourcing in Beaumont once we receive the necessary assurance regarding the appropriate use of NTPF funds. We are working closely with the HSE regional executive office on this matter.'
'The public must have full confidence and trust in the insourcing process. We are working alongside the Department of Health and HSE to increase governance and oversight across our insourcing work with public hospitals.'
The Irish Times reported last month that the catalyst for the suspension of funding for insourcing initiatives was a letter sent by consultants in one specialty to the chairwoman of Beaumont. The letter maintained the hospital had billed the NTPF for about 1,400 patients over a number of years who had actually been seen at regular public clinics.
On Wednesday, Fiona Brady, chief executive of the NTPF, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health that the
letter had been written by rheumatologists
at Beaumont Hospital.
She said the issue had emerged after she noticed in January that Beaumont Hospital had not applied for insourcing funding. It had received about €8 million the previous year.
Ms Brady said she had arranged a meeting with her counterpart at Beaumont at which she was shown a copy of the letter sent by the rheumatologists. She said subsequently a review of invoices submitted over a one-year period had been carried out.
'The NTPF had been billed as if it was additionality,' Ms Brady told the committee.
[
HSE chief tells Oireachtas group that 'we took our eye off the ball'
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]
The Public Accounts Committee is also expected on Thursday to question senior management at Children's Health Ireland (CHI), which runs paediatric hospitals in Dublin. Questioning is expected over an unpublished and highly controversial internal report from 2022 which questioned whether special weekend clinics funded by the NTPF in one specialty had been needed.
The NTPF suspended funding for insourcing initiatives at CHI for a period in May and early June after details of the 2022 report were leaked. The funding was later restored.
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