The need for Beaumont Hospital to replace its information system by the end of 2025 has become a “very serious operational risk for the hospital”, the Dáil’s spending watchdog has been told.
Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Seamus McCarthy told the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) there have been delays to the project at the north Dublin hospital, that there is around two years to complete it, and “they need it all at the moment”.
Meanwhile, Mr McCarthy highlighted payroll overpayments at the hospital of €288,513 in 2022 due to breaches of payroll controls and cumulative outstanding overpayments at the end of that year of €640,071.
He also drew attention to “significant” procurement at the hospital that was not compliant with public spending rules worth an estimated value of €26.4 million in 2022.
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The PAC heard that the C&AG has issued a clear audit opinion in relation to the Beaumont Hospital Board 2022 financial statements but that he was drawing attention to those three issues.
Mr McCarthy said the statement on internal control has an “extensive disclosure” about the Beaumont Hospital information system, that it will be inoperable beyond December 31st 2025, and it must be replaced by a functioning system before then.
He said: “Due to delays experienced so far, the timeline to implement its replacement poses a significant risk to effective operation of the hospital.”
Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy asked about the risk this poses in terms of interface with patients.
Mr McCarthy said “it has become a very serious operational risk for the hospital and that’s what they’re signalling in the in the statement on internal control”.
He said there has been “extensive gearing up in the hospital with additional recruitment and additional project management”.
A suggestion by Ms Murphy that the PAC’s concern about the risk to the functioning of the hospital and the potential impact on patients be included in a letter to the hospital was agreed by the committee.
Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe asked about the payroll overpayments.
Mr McCarthy said he was drawing attention to them “because I think it was a significant lapse in controls. These were overpayments that continued for a very long period”.
He said overpayments for short periods can happen when messaging from human resources departments are out of sync with the payroll system “and people get paid, even though they maybe left employment and so on”.
He said: “That’s understandable ... but I think in this case, the overpayments went on for a much lengthier period and that’s why I’m drawing attention to those payments.”
PAC chairman, Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley said the committee’s letter to the hospital should request how many people were involved, their staff grades and over what time period the issue occurred. The committee also agreed to ask how much has been recouped.
Mr McCarthy later said a small number of large overpayments were incurred in the period 2019 to 2021 and he noted he drew attention to them previously.
He said: “Our concern in 2022 was that there was again a significant jump in the amount of overpayments.”
Mr McCarthy said his notes “indicate that there were 135 overpayments in 2022 to a total of €288,000. So that’s about €2,300 per case.”
On the level of non-compliant procurement Mr McCarthy said it is “in or around the level of non-compliant procurement that you would see in the HSE” but also higher than some other hospitals
Mr Stanley said the PAC should also ask Beaumont Hospital about this while saying that the nature of hospitals mean that “there will be significant sources of goods that won’t go through normal procurement”.
Beaumont Hospital responded to the issues raised at the PAC meeting in a statement to The Irish Times.
In relation to its information technology system it said that in 2023 the hospital secured funding of €4.6m “to enable direct implementation for its replacement legacy core information system, BHIS before end of 2025 in partnership with the HSE.”
On payroll overpayments the hospital said the total overpayment “figure represents a cumulative value of miscellaneous payroll errors encompassing all staff categories, which occurred during the period of 2017 to 2022″.
It said this was “primarily as a consequence of delays in transfer of information between legacy stand-alone payroll and HR systems.”
The hospital’s statement added that it implemented a system in January 2024 “with integrated associated controls which will prevent the risk of recurrence” and that “Necessary repayment plans are in place and continue to be progressed on case-by-case basis.”
It also said that in 2022 the level of non-compliant procurement expenditure in Beaumont Hospital was “only 7.5 per cent with the substantial majority of non-compliant purchases relating to high-volume, low-value items within legacy ad-hoc purchasing arrangements.”
The statement added: “The hospital continues to review all non-compliant purchases with a view to regularising these arrangements. As noted to the PAC, Beaumont Hospital’s level of non-compliant procurement is similar to that in the HSE.”
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