The HSE spent almost €45m last year on professional services provided by major consulting firms, and has spent just under €140m with them over the past four years, according to figures seen by the Sunday Independent.
EY and PwC were the largest beneficiaries of the spending last year, billing the health service for just over €19m and €12.28m respectively.
PwC investigated the cyber attack on the HSE last year, publishing its findings last December, and a substantial amount of work related to IT has been undertaken by the consulting firms that were hired.
It also carried out a capacity and demand analysis last year to inform initiatives to tackle waiting lists.
EY, meanwhile, provided a range of services during the pandemic. These included financial analysis work, data analytics, testing and tracing operations, and supporting national integrated operations for the HSE.
The company has also provided services for the HSE in relation to work by Australian software firm Healthcare Logic to implement a so-called “health performance visualisation platform (HPVP)”.
The platform was designed to help hospitals manage and improve their capacity to treat patients, while dealing with the ongoing impact of Covid-19. However, some voluntary hospitals are declining to use it.
The HSE will tender for phase two of its HPVP project later this year, which could be worth up to €10m according to a pre-notification seen by this newspaper.
The next largest fee earner was Accenture, which billed the HSE for €4.68m last year.
KPMG earned €3.96m, with Grant Thornton the next largest beneficiary of spending on its professional advice and services, earning €3.85m.
Gartner and Mazars received €795,000 and €195,000 respectively.
In total consultancy firms billed the HSE almost €10m more last year than in 2020, when these earned €35.2m.
Their fees in 2018 and 2019 amounted to €31.1m and €28.6m respectively.
The figures on the spending were obtained in a parliamentary question by Social Democrat spokesperson on health Róisín Shortall.
The HSE’s national director of procurement, John Swords said: “Each of these firms were engaged after an appropriate procurement process, and these firms provide a range of services from audits, specialist reports, and specialist and expert advice.
“The HSE has a continuing requirement for additional expert support and capacity due to Covid-19 and the cyber attack.”
Last month, the HSE’s interim chief information officer Fran Thompson revealed in a letter to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín that the cost of the response to, and recovery from, last May’s cyber attack had reached almost €43m, and was expected to rise to €100m.
Sourced from The Independent.ie
Written by John Reynolds