The number of staff in management and administration posts in the health service increased by 98 per cent over the seven-year period to 2002, but nursing posts increased by just 22 per cent in the same period.
That is according to a financial audit of the health sector published yesterday by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It also found the number of medical/dental staff in the sector increased by 48 per cent over the same period.
Furthermore, it said, the numbers of general support staff, one-third of whom would be involved in front-line services, increased by 39 per cent and the number of health and social care professionals increased by 135 per cent.
Looking at net expenditure on the health service, it found this increased by 169 per cent from €2.9 billion in 1995 to €7.8 billion in 2002. "This increase outstripped the provision on other public services by a considerable margin."
While all areas of the health service saw increased spending, the area with the smallest increase was mental health services.
When the audit looked at the return for money invested in the five Dublin academic teaching hospitals from 1998 to 2002, it found there had been a 29 per cent increase in the numbers of patients treated. Their gross expenditure during this period increased by €425.5 million, from just over €500 million to over €925 million. The major elements of this increase were 3,000 additional staff ("substantially medical") costing €104 million, pay awards of €152 million, and €112 million on more expensive drugs.
The report said extra patients had been seen despite the fact that the number of new acute beds had increased "only marginally". This was by reducing the average length of stay of patients.
The report said the Department of Health devolved responsibility for staff numbers to health boards and health agencies in 2001 and then took it back at the end of 2002 when the Government decided to cap the numbers employed in the public sector. However, by the end of 2002 there were already 3,800 staff in excess of "the approved complement for that year" employed by health boards and health agencies.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, concluded there were deficiencies in the systems used to control and monitor staff in the health sector. These included a lack of reliable information on the numbers employed, time lags in collecting and collating employment data and the approval of new services without the necessary authorisation for additional staff. However a new computerised personnel system was now being put in place.
Last night, Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said the fact that there were more administrators than nurses taken on in the health service between 1995 and 2002 was "a stunning revelation into this Government's priorities for the health service".