HSE pays over €1.4 million over three years for Masters in healthcare management courses

The courses have been provided by the RCSI, the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), Irish Management Institute (IMI), Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork (UCC)

In 2015/6, some 12 clinical and 21 non-clinical participants were undertaking courses at a combined cost of €397,490. The largest payment of fees was paid to the RCSI (€205,680).

 In 2016/7, there were 17 clinical and 13 non-clinical participants doing healthcare management Master’s degree courses at a total cost of €386,579.

In the current academic year, some 27 clinical and 21 non-clinical participants are doing an MSc in Leadership in Healthcare at the IMI (with the MSc awarded by UCC). This comes to a cost of €638,208.

According to the HSE, the statistics outline the number of participants undertaking a course in a given academic year and the fee that pertains to that year.

There is a commitment in the Programme for Partnership Government that all hospital managers and CEOs are educated to Masters or MBA level, or equivalent, and are funded to do so.

In 2017, the HSE commenced a new Master’s level programme in healthcare leadership that is open to all managers including hospital managers/CEOs, its spokesperson said.

It is planned to increase the numbers of new places offered in the academic year 2018/19 to 96 people commencing a Master’s, with a similar number of new entrants in 2019/20, a HSE spokesperson said.