THE NEED for separate chief executives in each of Dublin’s six major hospitals was questioned at a conference on health service funding yesterday.
Prof Arnie Hill, a surgeon at Beaumont Hospital and a member of the expert group which reported on resource allocation and financing in the health sector in July, also questioned why each of the hospitals needed separate human resource departments at a time when there is an embargo on recruitment.
But he said the biggest waste of resources in the health sector was keeping hospitals open 24 hours “at every crossroads”. This was no longer sustainable. “We’ve got to cop on,” he said.
The lack of investment in information technology was also leading to resources being wasted. If the HSE invested in digital dictation technology, a lot of secretaries could be dispensed with and if medical records were computerised it would do away with many staff in records departments.
The single best way to save money, he added, was to put an immediate ban on the use of agencies for recruiting staff.
He said if a senior house officer (a grade of junior doctor) rang in sick his hospital would have to pay €2,000 a day for an agency doctor. “It’s insane . . . it’s criminal,” he said.
His comments came as new HSE figures showed €92 million was spent by hospitals on agency staff last year, many of them brought in to fill gaps created by the moratorium on recruitment.
The figures were released to Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony who said it was clear the recruitment ban is keeping the spend on agency staff excessively high.
“How can this make sense when it stands to reason agency staff are more expensive,” he asked.
Beaumont Hospital had the highest spend on agency staff at almost €9 million with St James’s Hospital not far behind.