HSE accused of not bringing top docs to book over shortfall in hours
Galway City Tribune - A Galway City councillor accused HSE management of “not bringing to book” consultants at the two Galway city hospitals who fail to meet their hours to treat public patients in a breach of their contracts.
At this month’s Regional Health Forum West meeting, Cllr Padraig Conneely referenced the RTÉ Prime Time investigation which examined the work of 36 consultants at Galway University Hospitals and found that 80% were engaging in private hours work which exceeded what was allowed under their contracts.
Most consultants are supposed to adhere to an 80% public patient and 20% private patient breakdown.
The investigation found that 15 consultants in Galway worked a day and a half per week in the public system.
One Galway consultant observed for eight weeks was working less than 13 hours on average per week in the public system, even though he was contracted to work 37 hours per week.
So, instead of working eight weeks, the consultant worked the equivalent of just three weeks. Based on HSE salary scales, he was paid more than €14,000 for work he did not do.
Cllr Conneely, who tabled a question about contracts types, said he did not accept the explanation from Chief Operating Officer for the Saolta Hospital Group, Ann Cosgrove. She stated the monitoring of the public/private mix was a “complex component of the on-going implementation process for the consultant contract”.
“Consultants are running rings around you. More than 80% of them are doing more than the 20% private work. They’re getting €200,000 but they’re not carrying out the public work they’re supposed to do. You’re not bringing them to book on it,” he fumed. To read the rest of this article, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.