Second computer system to be shelved
The future of another health service computer project was believed to be in doubt today as bosses meet to discuss the costly faulty payroll system.
Professor Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), is expected to temporarily shelve the controversial €116m P-PARS technology at this morning’s board meeting until its viability is assessed.
The board of the HSE is also expected to act on recommendations to halt work on FISP, a similar computer system to the payroll technology, which has already cost €30m.
Health Minister Mary Harney confirmed yesterday that the HSE would temporarily shelve its faulty P-PARS payroll system pending investigations.
The system, which has so far cost €116m, including up to €70m on external consultants, has been heavily criticised.
There are concerns about the FISP system, which is aimed at creating a central financial management system for the health services, that it is based on the same computer and management system as P-PARS.
Ms Harney said last night: “I understand the HSE will decide tomorrow to suspend the roll-out of the P-PARS, and I think that’s very sensible.
“We need a proper evaluation of whether it is the appropriate system for the health service.”
There were 25,000 different work rosters under the old manual payroll system and people doing similar jobs were sometimes paid different wages and church holidays were often mixed up with bank holidays.
Ms Harney said the original €10m cost estimate for the P-PARS system in 1999 was totally unrealistic.
