Health adviser free to also work elsewhere

A CONSULTANT earning €164,000 a year appointed to the Department of Health Special Delivery Unit (SDU) by Minister for Health James Reilly is free to work elsewhere during the term of her agreement, her contract shows.

The contract between the department and special adviser Lis Nixon, released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Acts, says Ms Nixon will normally work a 40-hour week, but explicitly states she will not be precluded from providing services to any other party.

She may also use the “concepts, know-how, formats and templates” developed while working for the SDU for herself or other parties, the contract stipulates.

Ms Nixon will be paid €492,000 over three years, on the basis of €41,000 every three months as director of performance improvement for unscheduled care at the SDU. Ms Nixon has over 10 years experience in change management and service improvement in the National Health Service in Britain.

She is one of two consultants appointed to the SDU. Dr Martin Connor, employed as a senior adviser, has a three-year contract worth €480,000. He spends some of his time working at Stanford University in the US.

The SDU was set up last summer to improve patient access to emergency department, elective, outpatient and diagnostic services. It has a budget of about €70 million and employs 16 staff.

At the time of her appointment, the department described Ms Nixon as “a very good catch”.

It said she had been brought in as a consultant when the department “couldn’t find anyone of sufficient experience and quality” to fill the role. Ms Nixon was “full-time” would pay her own pension, get no benefits and would be based in the department’s offices at Hawkins House, it said.

The department emphasised she was not a special adviser to the Minister, which should only attract a maximum salary on the same grade as a principal officer of €92,000 a year.

Ms Nixon’s contract is not on an employee-employer basis, but is an agreement between the department and Lis Nixon Associates, which has an address in Buckinghamshire in Britain and of which Ms Nixon is a director.

The payments made under the contract are subject to withholding tax and VAT. Ms Nixon reports to chief operating officer at the SDU Tony O’Brien.

Her duties include the development and implementation of two national strategies: one to reduce waiting times in emergency departments, and one to reduce and “ultimately” eliminate waiting on trolleys. She must also “consistently” improve the proportion of patients waiting less than six hours in emergency departments, the contract says.

Part of her remit is also to “develop an intensive support strategy for organisations which persistently underperform” and to “act as the primary source of policy advice to the SDU on all matters relating to emergency department waiting times”.

Should her contract be terminated by the department within six months of its expiry date, Ms Nixon will be paid €12,500 for each month lost. If it is ended sooner, she will be paid €75,000.

The Minister for Health has three special advisers; Seán Faughnan, a former Fine Gael official who worked on the party’s healthcare policy and who job shares with former chief executive of the Northern Area Health Board Maureen Windle; and Mark Costigan, a media adviser who worked with former minister for health Mary Harney.