A BRITISH health management consultant has accused some Irish private hospitals of trying to deflect attention from their high purchasing costs by falsely claiming that he had accused them of inefficiencies.
Mr Arthur Walton, a Worcester-based international consultant, said that from a preliminary study last year of Irish hospitals' purchasing lists he had concluded that they could save millions of pounds every year by using alternative sources of food, cleaning products, drugs and medical supplies.
However, the chief executive of the Independent Hospitals' Association of Ireland (IHAI), Mr Michael Heavey, said yesterday that these very limited figures had been produced only because Mr Walton was trying to get the contract for a projected IHAI commissioned study of hospital purchasing costs and stock control. The IHAI had been forced to put this on hold due to its current dispute with the VHI over 1996 prices for patient care.
He said the figures had been based on a small £500 foodstuffs "shopping list" from one small rural hospital and a drug purchasing list from another small rural hospital. However, Mr Walton said he had received purchasing lists from Mount Carmel in Dublin, St John of God's in Kilkenny, Galvia in Galway and Lindville in Cork.
Mr Walton said yesterday that he had done the preliminary study last year on an unpaid basis in the hope of winning the eventual contract. His figures covered the current and alternative prices of around 180 products. The price differentials ranged from 58 per cent for milk, 72 per cent for disinfectant, 86 per cent for some dressings, over 90 per cent for surgical gloves and between a few percentage points and 94 per cent for drugs.
He concluded that, overall, savings of over 40 per cent could be made on current hospital supply costs.
Mr Walton said the VHI had heard of the findings and had realised that cost reductions on hospital supplies would assist it "to be able to contain to some extent the spiralling cost of private health care, and hence patient premiums."
Mr Walton said that recently there had been "untrue insinuations" that he had written a critical report on inefficiencies he had found within IHAI hospitals. At no time had he carried out such a study or submitted such a report, he said.
He went on: "The only plausible reason for this accusation is that certain hospital managers wish to deflect attention from the issue that they do not wish to change their current suppliers of hospital supplies."
Mr Heavey yesterday denied that the accusation against Mr Walton had come from the IAHI. He said the only people who had claimed there was such a report to him had been those in the VHI.
The chief executive of the VHI, Mr Brian Duncan, confirmed that he had had contact with Mr Walton, but went on: "Our belief that many private hospitals could be more efficient is not based on anything Mr Walton has told us but on our own internal accounts, and on the very significant variations in the bills for medical procedures that private hospitals send us."
