The North Eastern Health Board (NEHB) has spent over €500,000 in the past 2½ years on reports that were never implemented, according to the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO). Yet it will not fund even an extra nursing hour, INO industrial relations officer for the region Ms Patsy Doyle told The Irish Times.
The INO obtained details of the reports through the Freedom of Information Act, she said.
The reports included two on maternity services in the region, one on risk management, one on management cohesion, a survey of surgical and A&E services, and a report on the Cavan and Monaghan hospital sites.
According to the figures obtained by the INO, the Condon report into maternity services in the region, published in November 2000and rejected by the NEHB, cost €78,353.05.
A second report into maternity services, the Kinder report, which was published in September 2001, cost €303,674 and has not been implemented.
The cost of the 2001 HRRI report into risk management was not revealed by the health board, but it stated it received €1.07 million from the Department of Health for its implementation.
The health board also did not reveal what it spent on the Capita Clinicians in Management report of June 2002, but stated the Department of Health had forwarded €500,000 for its implementation.
According to Ms Doyle, the main change to come from it was the appointment of two assistant general managers.
The Seagrave report into surgical and A&E services, published this year, cost €18,169.85 and shows no signs of implementation, Ms Doyle said.
She added that St Paul's report for Cavan/Monaghan hospital, also published in 2003, cost €57,285.50 and again shows no visible signs of implementation.
"Yet the acute hospitals, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Monaghan General and Cavan General are all in crisis," she said.
"Operations have been cancelled in Drogheda and Cavan, while the theatre in Monaghan lies idle - €500,000 could have provided in excess of 30,000 nursing hours to the front-line."
She said that some of the recommendations revealed in the reports included a vision for safe, innovative and accessible maternity services, while problems outlined included a dysfunctional relationship between the medical staff and the board of management in Monaghan, along with lack of controls on the intake of private patients to the perceived disadvantage of public patients (St Paul's report).