HSE Pays Medical Device Firm €720k Twice – Liquidation Risk
HSE Faces Scrutiny Over €720,000 Double Payment and Unaccounted Medical Supplies
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Dublin, Ireland – The Health Service Executive (HSE) is facing meaningful questions following revelations that a single invoice resulted in a €720,000 double payment to a medical supplies company. The lack of cross-checking between different departments within the HSE led to the erroneous payments, highlighting systemic weaknesses in financial oversight.
Flawed Payment System Leads to Significant Overpayment
The substantial overpayment occurred because the same invoice was processed and paid by two distinct divisions of the health service. The HSE’s annual report detailed that these payments originated from “legacy areas” that were previously managed on separate ledgers by different staff members.This siloed approach meant that no internal checks were in place to identify the duplicate transaction.
“The payments were made from two legacy areas [that] were previously on separate ledgers managed by different HSE staff,” the report stated. The HSE has as acknowledged the issue and confirmed that it now operates with an integrated financial and procurement system, designed to prevent such occurrences in the future.
PMD Device Solutions: A Supplier under the Spotlight
The company at the center of the payment controversy is PMD Device Solutions, established in Co Cork in October 2011. the firm specialised in developing medical products for respiratory monitoring. In early 2024, the then minister of state at the Department of Finance, Jennifer Carroll macneill (now Minister for Health), attended a ceremony to mark an acquisition involving the company at the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.
The HSE’s annual report,released last friday,indicates that PMD Device Solutions entered into an arrangement with the health service in 2020 for the supply of diagnostic devices,ancillary supplies,and information technology. This system was reportedly considered “of significant value in monitoring the condition of Covid-19 patients in hospital settings.”
Between 2020 and 2024, PMD Device Solutions received approximately €15 million from the HSE.
Emergency Procurement and Lack of Oversight
The report further reveals that the initial arrangement with PMD Device Solutions was put in place on an emergency basis during the Covid-19 pandemic. Crucially, this contract was never subsequently regularised through a competitive tendering process.
The HSE noted that different units within the organisation were invoiced from time to time. This included quarterly prepayments from mid-2022 to mid-2024 for a standard number of devices, intended to be drawn down by individual hospitals as needed.
However, the HSE admitted to a critical failure in its record-keeping. The executive did not maintain central records of the total number of units paid for. consequently, the number of devices received by hospitals, or paid for but remaining undrawn from the supplier, is unknown.
“The executive also does not know how many of the items paid for were actually used in its hospitals,” the report stated, underscoring a significant lack of accountability and traceability in the procurement and distribution of essential medical equipment.
Additional Financial Write-Offs Raise Further Concerns
In separate financial disclosures, the HSE also detailed the write-off of an “asset” constructed in 2009 at a cost of €1.4 million. This asset was never utilised for its intended purpose and was written off last year at a cost of €800,000.
The HSE explained that the write-off related to a planned hydrotherapy pool initiative. “A number of factors arising meant that it could not come to fruition,” the HSE said. The space has since been repurposed for essential clinical capacity development, resulting in the creation of six additional outpatient consulting rooms, expanded clinical storage, and hot-desking facilities for clinical staff. While the repurposing of the space is a positive development,the initial expenditure and subsequent write-off add to concerns about the HSE’s financial management and project planning.