New Report Reveals How Naas Hospital Broke Rules On Waiting-List Funding

Thursday, 28 August 2025 12:16

By Martin Osborne

On disclosure, Naas hospital suspended all NTPF insourcing initiatives.

A new report has revealed that three hospitals - Naas General, St Michael’s in Dún Laoghaire, and University Hospital Kerry - used all of the money they received from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to pay consultants, instead of also covering nursing and administrative costs as required.

The NTPF, which gets over €200 million a year from the State, funds extra clinics in public and private hospitals to cut waiting lists.

The Fund helps pay for public patients to be treated in private hospitals.

It also assists with paying public hospitals to deliver extra care outside of normal HSE-funded activity, usually in evenings or weekends, to add capacity beyond their “core” service.

The idea is that NTPF funding should cover the marginal costs of running these extra clinics — including consultants, nurses, and admin staff - so that a hospital can deliver more care without displacing regular HSE work.

But the report says these three hospitals broke the rules set out in their agreements with the agency.

At Naas, the review found waiting-list schemes were even run during normal working hours, not outside core activity as required.

According to the report, seen by Kfm, Naas Hospital did not provide assurances that activities are being carried out "strictly outside of core activity and are not displacing or overlapping with services already funded under the HSE National Service Plan".

On disclosure, Naas hospital suspended all NTPF insourcing initiatives.

"The Board and Executive of the NTPF take their oversight and fiduciary responsibilities to the publictaxpayer very seriously. We will take whatever actions are necessary to ensure our spend is fully protected for the benefit of public patients," the report stated.

Internal auditors are now investigating.

Kfm has contacted the HSE for comment.