{"id":806606,"date":"2026-10-18T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T13:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/806606\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T13:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T13:20:15","slug":"health-service-spent-e250m-more-on-higher-cost-agency-staff-than-budgeted-for-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/806606\/","title":{"rendered":"Health service spent \u20ac250m more on \u2018higher-cost\u2019 agency staff than budgeted for \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The health service spent more than \u20ac250 million on higher-cost temporary staff provided through agencies than the amount set out in its official budget in the first eight months of the year, a new internal Health Service Executive<\/a> report shows.<\/p>\n

The HSE\u2019s cost and productivity oversight group report, dated September 25th, says \u20ac522 million had been spent on agency staff by the end of August. The budget for agency personnel for the period had been set at \u20ac272 million. <\/p>\n

The report shows spending on staff overtime was about \u20ac52 million higher than the official budgetary figure. However, the bill for staff who were directly employed was about \u20ac220 million less than the \u20ac7.29 billion provided for in the health service budget to the end of August.<\/p>\n

The HSE told the D\u00e1il<\/a> Public Accounts Committee<\/a> in September that an employee provided through an agency can cost about 40 per cent more than a conventionally-recruited staff member.<\/p>\n

The oversight group\u2019s report says that by the end of August the HSE had a financial deficit of just under \u20ac660 million.<\/p>\n

This was made up of an overspend on pay of \u20ac172.5 million, a deficit on non-pay expenditure of \u20ac423.6 million and a shortfall in income of \u20ac63.2 million.<\/p>\n

Within Government there are concerns the overall HSE deficit could hit \u20ac1 billion by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The report indicates the health service is experiencing a significant reduction in income as a result of the abolition of private medical practice in public hospitals. Under changes introduced as part of the Sl\u00e1intecare<\/a> health reforms, consultants who had signed up to the public-only contract \u2013 which offered higher salaries \u2013 could not see fee-paying patients from the beginning of this year.<\/p>\n

Previously hospitals as well as doctors received payments in respect of private patients treated in public facilities.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How can runaway spending in the health service be reined in?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIncome remains a challenge, driven by reduced income from private consultant work as a result of public-only consultant contract implementation. Expected income from private consultant activity is behind August year-to-date budget (\u20ac99.0 million\/44.2 per cent variance) and total such income for August year-to-date is approximately \u20ac91 million lower than the same period in 2025,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

The report maintains that demand for care in hospitals is also significantly higher than set out in the HSE\u2019s national service plan (NSP) for the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinued demand growth [above NSP levels] is evident across urgent and emergency care. Over 1.1 million people attended emergency departments by August, representing a 7.2 per cent increase on last year and 4.7 per cent more than the NSP plan allowed for.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAdmission including over [age] 75-plus remain high year on year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also says the HSE spent \u20ac27 million more than anticipated in its budget to provide what is known as surge capacity to prevent patients having to be treated on trolleys.<\/p>\n

\u201cTotal surge capacity of 124,288 has been utilised August year-to-date. This is 44.1 per cent more than last year and is necessary to keep patients off trolleys. The incremental costs associated with this are estimated to be \u20ac27 million higher than last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemand has also outpaced targets in other areas such as cancer care and home support (August year-to-date). Demand has risen this year across symptomatic breast and rapid lung clinics with activity running 19.5 per cent and 23.4 per cent above NSP targets respectively. The number of patients having completed radical radiotherapy treatment is 17.5 per cent above the NSP target.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The health service spent more than \u20ac250 million on higher-cost temporary staff provided through agencies than the amount…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[123629,102,9045,2960,44660,82465,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-806606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-dail-eireann","tag-health","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-public-accounts-committee","tag-slaintecare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}