A Harvard professor is being paid $70,000 (€50,489) to give a two-day masterclass in Dublin to the Health Service Executive on Value in Healthcare.

Prof Robert S Kaplan will participate in eight sessions at the event between May 15th and May 16th for a total of almost six hours.

The total cost of the two-day event, which is being hosted by the director general of the HSE Tony O’Brien, is €150,000.

With 470 participants in attendance, this works out at €319 per person for the master-class in “driving change and achieving value in healthcare”.

“Considering the calibre of speakers, this method is immensely cost-effective for the quality of training provided,” the HSE said last night.

It said a key aim of the event was to “address the financial constraints facing healthcare”.

It said sponsorship for the event was being sourced by event management firm Investnet Healthcare from 400 companies, some of whom the HSE admitted were its suppliers.

“This approach was chosen to assist with, and hopefully cover, the costs of the event, but also to allow some distance and reduce any perceived conflict of interest,” the HSE said.



Robust procurement

The executive also said it had “robust” procurement processes and protocols to “eliminate any potential conflicts of interest”.

It said in the “unlikely” event the masterclass was not “cost-neutral”, then “any outstanding sums will be covered by training and development budgets”.

Prof Kaplan declined to comment on his fees yesterday. He said it was “not my position to judge” whether it was good value.

“It is a very specific programme that requires extensive preparation,” he said.

Prof Kaplan is the Marvin Bower professor of leadership development Emeritus at the Harvard Business School.

He is best known for his work on activity-based costing.