HSE Covid-19 financial controls over €224.9m of spending in the first months of the pandemic were “unsatisfactory”, a critical internal report reveals today. The HSE’s own internal audit office looked at emergency spending on PPE, ventilators, masks, sanitiser and private hospitals in the first months of the Covid-19 crisis. The HSE had pre-paid €81m to 10 suppliers previously unknown to the HSE for nearly 2,200 ventilators at the start of the pandemic. It comes as the HSE published its service plan for 2022 today setting out how it will spend its €20.7bn budget. *The new National Forensic Mental Health Service will be opened in Portane with an initial 110 beds, increasing to 130 during 2022.

Source: Irish Independent March 01, 2022 19:07 UTC