The chief executive of Beaumont Hospital Anne Coyle has stepped down after two years in the role.
The hospital said on Tuesday that a recruitment process would now get under way to fill the post.
Coyle is expected to remain at the hospital until mid-November to facilitate a transition to the next chief executive. Beaumont is a large academic teaching hospital in north Dublin that receives a State financial allocation of about €700 million. It is the principal teaching hospital for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Beaumont said Coyle had informed the hospital board in recent days of her decision.
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Coyle said in a statement: “I leave with a strong sense of pride in what we have achieved. The hospital has continued to make significant progress in delivering our strategic priorities, strengthening the quality and safety of our services, and building a more sustainable future for Beaumont.”
Beaumont Hospital chairwoman Pauline Philip said that under Coyle’s leadership over the last two years, it had made significant progress across key areas.
“Anne always put patients first and worked tirelessly with her team and colleagues throughout the organisation to make Beaumont Hospital a better place, not just for patients, but also for our staff.”
The hospital, however, has faced criticism from members of the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts in recent months over spending and procurement issues, which in many cases dated back to previous management.
At a committee hearing in June, Coyle said the hospital offered “an unreserved apology” in relation to several historical control issues identified in the 2024 financial statement.
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) for 2024 found that the hospital had paid €1.5 million to a company involved in providing radiology services that were not competitively procured.
The C&AG said that 20 staff members at the hospital were directors of the supplier company, but only four had made declarations regarding the company in their statutory statements of interest for 2024.
The hospital also faced criticism over delays and a cost overrun in relation to a new information technology system.
“The final project cost was €4.8 million compared with a July 2022 projected cost of €2 million. In addition, public procurement guidelines were not followed in awarding the contract to develop the system. Also, due to initial payroll processing failures, the hospital incurred Revenue interest and penalties of €66,000,” said Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy.
Coyle told the committee that in 2019 previous management maintained a derogation from public procurement rules should apply because of demand for radiology services and the importance of the provision of timely access to scans.
She said the radiology contract was subsequently rolled over in 2024 as it was believed the original derogation still applied.
The committee also heard that the payroll and human resources system, which went over budget by €2 million, had also been secured without going through public procurement procedures.
Separately, last year internal auditors found that Beaumont had billed the National Treatment Purchase Fund €25,000 for treatment of patients whose bills had already been covered by the Health Service Executive.
The payment relates to patients treated by the rheumatology department at Beaumont.
