Private security for Galway hospitals cost €34,000 per week

More than €4m was spent on private security companies at University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park in the past two and a half years.

That includes €1.7m in 2020; €1.9m in 2021; and more than €800,000 this year up to the end of May.

Among the services offered by the private security guards was “close supervision of patients where required”.

The security guards were on duty at the main entrance to the public hospital at UHG, as well as in the Emergency Department.

They security companies provided services such as static officers, key holding, CCTV and alarm monitoring, mobile patrols on hospital grounds, and production of staff ID badges.

Ann Cosgrove, Chief Operations Officer of Saolta University Healthcare Group – which operates UHG and Merlin Park – said the company’s current contract was in its third year and there was an option to extend it for a further 12 months.

She said that there was a greater need for security at UHG but the figures also included Merlin Park.

County Councillor Daithí Ó Cualáin (FF) said on average the two hospitals were spending €34,000 on security per week.

He wondered whether they were trained and whether it was appropriate for security guards to be supervising patients.

Cllr Ó Cualáin said it might be cheaper and more appropriate to hire in-house security rather than to contract it out.

Ms Cosgrove said that the service provided was 24/7. She said that security guards are “not the first port of call” if a patient needs restraint - healthcare assistants would deal with those situations in the first instance.  They were trained, however.

She confirmed that Saolta had hired about 14 full-time security guards for GUH in the past six to eight months to supplement the private security companies.

The savings made from these posts would be reviewed before a new contract for private security was tendered, she said.