A review of income used by Naas General Hospital under the National Treatment Purchase Fund has found that consultants were paid €2 million between 2022 and 2025. Of this, close to €500,000 was paid to two external companies, in which a director in each company also works as a consultant at Tallaght hospital. The audit found that consultants were paid significantly higher levels under the fee-per-patient structure than they would have been through standard contractual or overtime arrangements. More importantly, there was no evidence of approval being sought by hospital management for a derogation from standard public procurement procedures. First, what are the consequences if and when reviews find such misappropriation of NTPF funds? Second, is it time for a national review of the NTPF programme to make sure that this is not a widespread issue in hospitals throughout the country?

Sentiment score: 0.14