A UK-based consultancy firm has won a three-year €1.5 million contract to help the Health Service Executive to improve "care, compassion, trust and learning" in the country's hospitals.
The Buckinghamshire-based Chalfont Project Ltd, headed by consultant Dr Leandro Herrero, was awarded the contract for the Values in Action programme after a tender process in recent months.
The tender had sought a supplier for “behaviour-based cultural change implementation support”, saying change is needed to make “care, compassion, trust and learning more visible in our everyday actions”.
Applicants were required to have a proven record in “delivering culture change within public sector environments preferably, although not necessarily, the health sector”.
Competing bidders needed to have a “proven track record in creating social movements, community management, and design of appropriate supports for sustainable grassroots led movements”.
Dr Herrero has already worked on the project pilot in the mid-west region and was paid more than €129,000 by the HSE between April 12th, 2016 and October 31st, 2016.
Seminars
These included three payments of €18,500 each on June 30th, September 30th and October 31st for work on Values in Action, which saw HSE staff attend a number of seminars in Limerick.
Ten companies sought the contract, which began on July 1st and runs for three periods of 12 months with an option to extend it for a further 12 months. The total value is €1.5 million excluding VAT.
The HSE describes Values in Action as “a new approach to building the kind of health service we all want – from the inside out – making the health service a better place for staff, patients and service users”.
“It’s going to take all of us, from all grades, roles, disciplines and backgrounds, working together to change our health service for the better,” according to its website.
A survey carried out for the HSE and published two years ago found that just over half of all staff were satisfied with their workplace conditions and atmosphere.