HSE suspends work on two computer payroll systems

The Health Service Executive has announced it has put two controversial computerised staff payment systems "on hold" amid growing concerns over the soaring costs surrounding their introduction.

The centralised payroll and staff records system will continue to be used in St James's Hospital and the three former health board areas of North West, Midlands and Mid Western

Following a meeting of its board in Dublin today, the HSE released a statement explaining that it had decided to suspend the expansion of the PPARs and FISP systems.

The new chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, established a group of senior managers in August to review PPARS. It recommended that development work on the project be put on hold.

The HSE said an executive group "will now establish the long term value of PPARS".

The centralised payroll and staff records system, which has already cost around €150 million to install, will continue to be used in four HSE locations - St James's Hospital and the three former health board areas of North West, Midlands and Mid Western - but a planned expansion to the rest of the health service has been halted.

"The HSE has decided that before investing further in the project, it must be assured that all future investment will represent good value and meet the specific needs of the new national structures," the statement said.

FISP, which is intended to be a central financial management and budget system for the health services, has already cost €30 million.

It is at a very early stage of development and is on budget and on time. However, it is understood the HSE was concerned that, because it is based on the same computer and management system as PPARs and involves the same consultants, it could also be subject to massive cost overruns.

"It is important that the HSE is completely satisfied that all such systems are adequate to its future needs," said Laverne McGuinness, HSE's National Director of Shared Services, following today's meeting.

The HSE also rejected some reports that staff who had raised concerns about PPARs were "bullied and vilified" by managers and PPARS staff. It had received no reports or complaints of this nature from staff and said all such allegations were taken "extremely seriously".

The Labour Party's health spokeswoman, Liz McManus, said this afternoon the HSE had made "the only logical decision". However, she said the question of why it was not taken much earlier remained.

"How is it that none of the three Ministers of Health who held office in the relevant period or the small of advisers are their disposal ever apparently inquired as to whether this system was suitable, whether it would work, and if it represented value for the taxpayer's money?" asked Ms McManus .

She called for the introduction of new controls on public spending to ensure better value for the taxpayer. In particular, she said, the massive spending on consultants needed to be addressed.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said the debacle was a "bitter pill" for patients to swallow at a time when there are up to 290 people a day waiting on trolleys for beds in A&E departments.

"It is precisely the kind of chronic wastefulness, endemic in this Government, which sees resources targeted at the wrong areas and fails to make the changes which will benefit patients - more beds, more frontline staff," he said.

"It is therefore particularly outrageous that the State should be throwing hundreds of millions into computer systems that do not work and other drains on the taxpayer that divert funds from front-line medical line services," he said.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association also welcomed the HSE decision. Secretary General Finbarr Fitzpatrick said Ireland is one of the worst states in the EU in terms of its spend on health.