HSE to learn how to cut costs at boot camp

HSE managers are to be sent on boot-camp training in the latest attempt to curb overspending in the health service.

The training is included in a €125,000 contract the Health Service Executive has signed with a US consultancy firm.

Chicago-based Capitol Consulting is being drafted in to advise on cost-cutting in 10 hospitals in Dublin and the northeast after internal measures failed to make the required savings this year.

The move is in response to chronic overspending in the Dublin North East region of the HSE. Last September, local managers were warned by their senior executives that risks to patients in Louth and Meath would increase unless they provided “real” management and leadership.

The €125,000-plus-VAT contract, which has been seen by The Irish Times, is for “external support to assist in identification and achievement of cost reduction measures and targets for acute hospitals with DNE” as part of a three-year sustainability plan.

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has tabled a Dáil question seeking further data on the deal from Minister for Health James Reilly. He wants to know if it involves further payments based on savings delivered through the consultancy.

The contract was awarded to Capitol, which has experience in cutting costs in hospitals in the US, and its Irish arm, Market Square Partners, based in Tralee. David J LeClercq, managing partner of Market Square Partners, said the HSE had signed up with his company “to improve labour performance”.

During the boot camp, “each manager goes through a self-evaluation . . . to plan and execute meaningful change”, according to Capitol’s website. The aim is to train the manager to become “an internal consultant”.

The contract starts with Monaghan Hospital, Cavan Hospital, Louth County Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan. Beaumont Hospital will be the focus of the second phase, while the third concentrates on the Mater, Rotunda, Cappagh and Connolly.