Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Planes at the airport in New Delhi, India Kevin Frayer/AP/Press Association Images
HSE
HSE spent €100,000 on ten-day trip to South Asia
The last-minute trip to find junior doctors in India and Pakistan cost more than €10,000 a day.
HSE MANAGERS SPENT more than €100,000 on a ten-day trip to recruit junior doctors in India and Pakistan earlier this year.
The recruitment team of 36 people – including consultants, managers and admin staff – paid out €113,768 during the visit in May this year, including €37,866 on flights alone, James Fogarty reports in the Medical Independent. Another €21,008 was spent on meeting rooms and business centres, while the bill for accommodation and transfers came to €44,913.
The HSE said that it paid economy rates for the flights, and that security concerns – including the killing of Osama bin Laden, which occurred during the trip – made it more expensive.
The trip came amid a last-minute scramble to recruit junior doctors, as it emerged more than a hundred posts in Irish hospitals would be unfilled when medics started their new training posts in July.
have your say