2 days ago
Beaumont billed NTPF for patients seen in routine clinics, doctors claim
Beaumont Hospital
in Dublin billed the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) – the State-funded organisation which buys care for those on long waiting lists – for about 1,400 patients seen in routine public clinics, doctors have claimed.
Concerns were raised by consultants in one speciality at Beaumont in a letter to the hospital's chairwoman, Pauline Philip, earlier this year. These concerns were the catalyst for the move by the NTPF to suspend all funding for an initiative aimed at tackling waiting lists in the north Dublin facility.
The NTPF said on Wednesday it had paused funding for what is known as 'insourcing' at a public hospital, subsequently identified as Beaumont, on foot of 'potential financial irregularities'. Insourcing is where funding is provided to hospitals and staff to provide treatment to patients waiting longest for care. This is to take place outside of core working hours or at weekends. Hospitals and their staff receive additional payments for carrying out such work.
Beaumont has received about €40 million in funding from the NTPF under various waiting list initiatives since 2020 – including €11.196 million in 2023, €8.6 million in 2024 and €1.185 million so far in 2025.
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Before funding being suspended in April, about 18 people each week were receiving outpatient appointments and about 25 undergoing gastrointestinal scope procedures under the insourcing arrangements.
The Irish Times understands that a number of consultants maintained in the letter to the chairwoman there had been systematic underreporting of activity in their speciality to the
HSE's
national programme for the particular discipline for several years.
The consultants maintained that Beaumont had been claiming for new patient activity from the NTPF without their knowledge or consent.
They maintained that this represented about 1,400 new patient appointments, going back to 2019.
The consultants maintained that their routine clinical practice had been billed to the NTPF and they were not seeking personal financial reimbursement.
Beaumont Hospital did not reply to questions submitted by The Irish Times on Friday.
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National Treatment Purchase Fund seeks assurances from all hospitals that rules of waiting-list schemes being followed
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It is understood that the consultants said in the letter to the hospital board that they had been unsuccessful in getting answers to several questions, including the exact amount that had been billed to and paid by the NTPF regarding activity in the speciality, for what this money had been used and whether similar issues had taken place elsewhere.
The NTPF said on Wednesday it had alerted Minister for Health
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
and the HSE about the issue at a public hospital in April.
The Minister said the matter had been referred to internal auditors at the HSE.
In a statement on Friday, the NTPF said it had 'raised its serious concerns with the chief executive and board of Beaumont Hospital and with the Department of Health and the HSE and is working with them in relation to the issue'.
'The matter has been referred to the HSE's internal audit team. The board and executive of the NTPF take their responsibilities very seriously and will take whatever actions are necessary to ensure our spend with public hospitals is fully protected for the benefit of public patients. Any proven misuse of public money by public institutions will be treated with the gravity it deserves.'
It is understood the consultants maintained that the underreporting of activity by the hospital had portrayed them as being among the least productive such units in the country, when the opposite was the case.
They expressed concern that as a result of how the unit was perceived in terms of productivity, it may have lost out on investment.
Beaumont said on Wednesday that in March it had 'approached the NTPF of its own volition for the purpose of securing necessary clarifications in relation to activity conducted under the terms and conditions of an existing memorandum of understanding'.
