Staggering lack of oversight in St James’s Hospital

Another scandal emerged in the health service this week when news broke of troubling payments in the biggest hospital in the country.

St James’s Hospital in Dublin has already apologised for paying out almost €1.4m for a variety of services to a radiology company which is not only based on its own campus but features 18 directors who are already members of the hospital’s staff. The Public Accounts Committee was told that there had been no public tender process for the services.

For anyone with even half an eye on the news the staggering lack of oversight involved here will hardly come as a surprise.

It is no shock either to learn that some of those involved in this private company somehow omitted to make declarations of interest, even though that does not make this situation any less distasteful. How highly qualified medical professionals somehow did not see fit to share this information with the hospital is extraordinary.

As a comparison, readers can consider the current focus on another example of State spending, one which coincided almost exactly with the revelations about the St James’s Hospital spending.

This week, the Oireachtas committee on education and youth discussed the hot school meal programme. This initiative has been available to all primary schools since September of last year, with around 3,700 schools and organisations eligible to access the scheme.

The children’s charity Barnardos told the committee bluntly that not all of the 35,000-plus children it supports would receive a hot meal without the programme, and asked that it be extended to secondary schools as well.

Interestingly, one issue some school principals have with the scheme is the procurement process, which is so stringent that it takes up a significant amount of time each week in the absence of specific staffing, expertise, and resources.

Readers need only compare the lack of oversight of a private company’s lucrative relationship with St James’s Hospital with the more rigorous governance requirements of aprogramme aimed at helping the most vulnerable.

If that company donated its profits to the hot school meal programme, it would be a welcome gesture.

Original source: ie