News
HSE managers told to register all interests to avoid conflict
Senior hospital managers in the HSE West from now on must declare register of interests to guard against potential conflict in the awarding of health contracts.
The new measure is one of six recommendations the HSE insists has been implemented following a controversial case in which public contracts worth almost €400,000 were awarded at University Hospital Galway without a competitive public procurement process.
The recommendations were made on foot of an internal audit carried out by the HSE in relation to the awarding of a contract to Northgate, a private company, to provide services to the Saolta group of hospitals in the west and north west.
The audit was ordered after it emerged Bill Maher, the former chief executive of Saolta, had a business relationship as a consultant with Northgate, prior to working with the HSE.
Mr Maher’s successor, Maurice Power, was the chief financial officer of the hospital group when the services were procured.
City Councillor Pádraig Conneely, who consistently raised the spectre of a conflict of interest in this case, has said he has been vindicated by the internal audit.
Speaking at the latest HSE West Regional Health Forum, Cllr Conneely said management at the hospital are “not clean on this”.
He said no procurement took place and the internal audit was “damning” of the practices in place.
Cllr Conneely said he was “fobbed off” when he first raised this as a matter of public interest but he has now been “totally vindicated”.
He criticised the HSE for not releasing the report to members, and claimed it was an insult that they had to access the report through Freedom of Information.
Cllr Conneely pointed out at the meeting that Tony Canavan, Chief Officer of Saolta Hospital Group, was not implicated in the report but others had questions to answer.
In response, Ann Cosgrove, Chief Operating Officer with Saolta Hospital Group, said she could not comment on individuals.
She said the internal audit was available through FOI and would not be released outside of that.
Ms Cosgrove said the recommendations of the audit, which were published at the meeting, have been fully implemented.
One recommendation – compiling a register of interests for all senior management of hospitals – will “help to avoid situations where a potential conflict of interest may arise with a supplier to a hospital group”.
“Consultation with HSE Procurement should take place prior to hospital groups entering into any significant purchase commitments,” the report recommended.
Another of the six recommendations said: “All contracts in excess of €25,000 which have been awarded without a competitive process must be disclosed to the Comptroller and Auditor General”.
It also said that “HSE terms and conditions should always be used when entering into contracts with suppliers”. It added: “The current arrangement involving the secondment of IT project management services from Northgate to Saolta should be concluded and replaced by the new procurement framework agreement once this becomes available”.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
