Labour TD calls for ‘full audit’ of National Treatment Purchase Fund

The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) should be “closed down” and subjected to an extensive audit, a Labour TD has said.

Alan Kelly said many people in the healthcare sector believed there were issues with how money in the fund had being allocated, adding that he would personally be “very shocked” if that was not the case.

The NTPF, which is a body that arranges external treatments for patients on public hospital waiting lists, has come under scrutiny after it was reported in the Sunday Times that a Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) consultant had been delaying treatment and referring public patients to his own private clinic while being paid thousands of euro through the scheme.

CHI has said it is seeking legal advice following Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s request to publish an internal examination report into the matter.

It has been reported that the HSE is referring the report to An Garda Siochana.

Mr Kelly said on Thursday: “Any country that has an NTPF basically illustrates that we’ve had a failure in healthcare.

“There needs to be a full audit going back many years in relation to how the NTPF has worked, where the money has gone, who has benefited, in what sectors and over what duration of time?

“Personally, I believe that the NTPF needs to be closed down.”

Mr Kelly said the fund should be phased out, adding that Ireland should be in a position where hospitals were operating seven-days-a-week and those who needed treatment were prioritised by need, rather than paying private providers to treat public patients.

He said he accepted there would need to be exemptions for special cases.

On a spate of other scandals affecting CHI, Mr Kelly argued that it should be quickly subsumed within the HSE.

“We need to have confidence in the governance and the day-to-day running – because the culture within CHI seems to be absolutely atrocious,” he said.