The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has written to all public hospitals with whom it funds insourcing work to confirm that all work is being carried out in line with agreed processes.
In a statement, the NTPF said it takes the issues around insourcing raised by the internal Children’s Health Ireland report “very seriously” and is working closely with the Department of Health and the HSE on this matter.
“It is completely unacceptable that there would be any misuse of public money and that children would wait longer for surgery when the whole purpose of the NTPF is to ensure faster access to treatment for public patients. The NTPF will fully reserve its position in relation to any proven misuse of public money and explore all options for restitution while ensuring public patients get the treatment they deserve.”
Following initial media reports on the issue, the NTPF immediately placed a temporary pause on all insourcing work with CHI while it initiated a review of this work to gather the necessary assurances regarding compliance, value for money and appropriate use of NTPF-funding mechanisms.
This work is ongoing with CHI to obtain and review these assurances.
“It is important to stress that all pre-planned insourcing work has continued with CHI and the intention is that the temporary pause will be lifted as soon as the NTPF is satisfied with the assurances given by CHI in this review so as to minimise any disruption to children and their families,” according to the statement.
The NTPF said media reports that “thousands” of children will face surgery delays due to this pause are “totally inaccurate, ill-informed and very disappointing to read”.
“NTPF-funded insourcing accounts for a very small proportion of total work undertaken by CHI,” according to the statement.
“In the year to date, the NTPF was funding an average of approximately four surgeries (inpatient or day-case) per week and an average of 115 outpatient consultations (initial appointments with a consultant) per week through insourcing with CHI. Every appointment is extremely important though and the NTPF wishes to be in a position to safely and confidently lift the pause as quickly as possible.”
In addition to this, the NTPF has this week written to all public hospitals with whom it funds insourcing work to obtain further confirmation that all work is carried out in line with the strict memoranda of understanding signed by the hospitals relating to this work and the NTPF’s processes and procedures in this regard.
A “strict” deadline of Monday 16 June has been given for the completion of this work.
The NTPF said it will subsequently report on the matter to the Department and the HSE.
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