PAYING €420,000 a year to Health Service Executive (HSE) Director General Paul Reid for overseeing a dysfunctional system makes no sense.
That’s the view of County Limerick Rural Ireland Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue who claims that the salary and benefits paid to the HSE boss represents very bad value for money.
“Mr Reid earns over €420,000 a year and oversees a broken health system that has not improved in the last 12 months,” Deputy O’Donoghue said.
“Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, earns €350,000 per annum and answers to nearly 500 million people. Paul Reid earns near €430,000 per annum and answers to five million people. Surely, this does not make sense. Where is the value for money?
“University Hospital Limerick continues to top the poll for overcrowding. How many intensive care unit beds have been created through his time? When are the waiting lists going to be dealt with? When is the trolley crisis going to be dealt with? Where is the value for money?
Deputy O’Donoghue believes that the overcrowding problem is not caused by the increase in attendance at emergency departments, but the bottleneck in the flow of patients to the rest of the hospital system.
“On my first day in Leinster House, I asked for a business model for hospitals and for a bed structure to be put in place and to go back in time to when the rounds were being done.
“Beds were being released at 11 o’clock after rounds. It then gave the opportunity for beds to be cleaned and put back into the system by 1pm, and it created a flow of people but it also gave infrastructure for nurses and doctors within the hospitals. They knew what beds they had and on what time they would have them. It gave a structure.
“The Government has thrown money time and again at this and has created massive buildings with similar technology and it has not fixed the problem. This is a management problem. Management needs to be held accountable for this situation,” he added
In response to Deputy O’Donoghue’s comments on the HSE’s salary, a spokesperson said: “The salary applicable to the HSE CEO Paul Reid is €366,880. Mr Reid is not a member of the HSE pension scheme and in lieu he receives an additional allowance €49,966.97 in respect of a pension contribution.”
