Hospitals criticised over €100k PR costs
TD lashes out against ‘ridiculous’ spending on spin
SOME of Ireland’s busiest and best known maternity hospitals have continued to fork out thousands of euro on public relations and spin.
Three of these hospitals splashed out a combined total of more than €100,000 on PR advice and media consultants last year.
Since 2010, the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, the Coombe and the Rotunda have spent a combined bill of over €780,000 for PR as they engaged the services of external communications experts.
Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly branded the figures for the three hospitals ‘ridiculous’. The Dublin TD told the Irish Daily Mail it is ‘concerning that this level of money is being spent in PR when the focus should be on patients and their needs – not spin’.
The three Dublin-based hospitals are all voluntary hospitals which are largely dependent on taxpayers’ money to stay open.
Records released to the Mail through a Freedom of Information probe show that in 2018, the three hospitals spent at least €103,998.60 – including VAT – on spin and PR advice.
Holles Street spent €33,416.60 on the services of Murray Consultants from January of last year until late October, and this sum includes VAT. Since 2011, the hospital has spent a total of €240,908.59 (including VAT) on spin doctors – it had no such expenditure recorded in 2010.
The National Maternity Hospital said that ‘almost all public relations work done for the hospital involves responding to external media queries and requests’.
It added that the level of work varies ‘considerably over time and is led by the level of media interest in the hospital, which at times is extremely intense’.
Meanwhile, the Coombe spent almost €30,000 on ‘public relations services’ in the first ten months of last year. Since 2010, the maternity hospital has spent €316,424.12 on external public relations firms – the highest of these three hospitals – and this total sum includes VAT.
The Coombe confirmed that FTI Consulting is retained by the hospital to provide services or advice on an ‘ongoing basis at a monthly amount of €2,942.16 per month including VAT’.
A spokesperson for FTI Consulting said: ‘Since 2010, FTI Consulting receives an annual fee of €27,600 (excluding VAT and third-party cost) for communications services rendered to the Coombe.’
A spokesman for the Coombe said its use of a ‘PR agency provides the media with a 24/7 point of contact for their enquiries’, adding: ‘Our agency understand media deadlines, deals with responses to questions from journalists, and the use of a PR agency allows the Coombe to do what it does best – providing care to our patients.’
Meanwhile, the Rotunda spent a total of €41,160.40 on services from Heneghan PR in the first nine months of last year.
For 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and the first nine months of 2018, its total bill for PR was €225,476.28. It had no such expenditure recorded for 2012 and 2014.
The hospital said it ‘has used the services of public relations firms for a variety of projects or issues that required consultation’, adding: ‘These included media queries, training, branding solutions, etc.’
A spokesperson for the hospital said this is considered necessary spending and good value for money.
‘As a voluntary hospital with an independent board, it is important that the hospital engages in good, open and transparent communications with all stakeholders and this is why spend represents good value,’ they added.
‘Good value for money’