Money should be paid back, Kenny says after HSE leak

Money paid in the wrong should be paid back, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said following the leaking of a draft report on the HSE which showed managers claiming for five-star hotels and flights for guests.

The draft, from the Comptroller and Auditor General, was circulated to Senators, Mr Kenny told the Dáil, adding that the HSE had to answer to the comptroller.

He was responding to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams who highlighted details of the revelations. Mr Adams said people would be outraged at the contrast between the conditions endured by patients in emergency departments and the comptroller's report that "HSE managers are claiming public money for nights in five-star hotels, flights for guests and alcohol on trips".

The HSE audit also found, he said, “that a former retired employee was rehired on a contract of six hours per week for a salary of €156,000”.

Criticising the HSE, he said this salary should be compared with the plight of patients who could not leave hospital because “the Government cannot give them the financial support for a home care package or basics like a grab rail or other appliances”.

Mr Kenny said if spending levels were unacceptable, “moneys paid in the wrong should be paid back and people who were not authorised to travel should reimburse those things”.

The Taoiseach said “obviously the HSE must answer to the Comptroller and Auditor General in respect of it”.

Sleep deprivation

Earlier there were heated exchanges between the Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who referred to a letter from a doctor in emergency medicine about

Beaumont Hospital

, that it was “unequivocally the most dangerous unit in which he worked” and described it as a “healthcare Guantanamo” because of the way patients on trolleys suffered sleep deprivation over a period of 24 to 48 hours in a noisy and chaotic emergency department.

Mr Martin said Minister for Health Leo Varadkar had stated that he needed more resources for the Fair Deal scheme, home care packages and home help provision for elderly people.

Mr Kenny said Mr Varadkar had responded on the issue and had established a taskforce to deal with delayed discharges and the situation that had arisen in a number of hospitals.

Mr Kenny also said that “if money was the solution to the problems in the health system, they would have been sorted long ago”.

Rounding on Mr Martin, a former minister for health, he said “you have some responsibility for that yourself where it didn’t work out”.