St Vincent’s group row with HSE hurts health service, says Varadkar

The dispute between between the Health Service Executive and the St Vincent's Healthcare Group, which runs two of Dublin's main public hospitals, is detrimental to the health service, the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said.

He said the Department of Health would seek to convene talks between the HSE and the St Vincent's group in a bid to resolve outstanding issues.

The Irish Times reported on Thursday that the HSE was to commission external forensic auditors to review financial arrangements within the St Vincent's Healthcare Group.

The HSE said its director general, Tony O'Brien, had taken the decision on foot of "specific allegations" it received concerning the group, which operates the publicly funded St Vincent's Hospital in Elm Park and St Michael's Hospital in Dún Laoghaire as well as the associated St Vincent's Private Hospital.

The concerns are understood to relate to documents in the Companies Registration Office that describe St Michael's Hospital as a charge or security in a mortgage dated December 23rd, 2014, between St Vincent's Healthcare Group and Bank of Ireland.

Terms of reference

A spokesperson for St Vincent’s Healthcare Group said it “looked forward to agreeing the specific terms of reference for the involvement of HSE forensic auditors, and is satisfied to co-operate on this basis”.

The HSE also said the auditors would “examine the public and private caseload mix and workplans of consultants in the group to ensure that they are within the agreed contractual ratios and in accordance with the contract type”.

The HSE said that “because of his concerns” Mr O’Brien had notified the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Mr Varadkar said: “St Vincent’s is one of the biggest hospitals in the country. Clearly relations between the HSE and St Vincent’s are not in a good place. There does need to be more dialogue between the two and for necessary information to be made available to the HSE.”

Concerned

Mr Varadkar said he was concerned the absence of a good working relationship was detrimental to the health service.

“The department will now seek to convene a meeting between the HSE and St Vincent’s so that the two parties can find a way to resolve their issues,” he said.

The St Vincent’s Healthcare Group said its board last November “finalised the legal formalities of converting a ‘floating’ charge into a ‘fixed’ charge in respect of various fixed assets of St Michael’s Hospital, following a review of security arrangements with Bank of Ireland”.

It added: “This fixed charge has no operational, patient or financial impact on St Michael’s Hospital and regularises the security arrangements across the group.”