Paid to stay away

A Irish hospital consultant who was fired for keeping his patients in the hospital for above-average periods of time landed a severance package worth €1.6 million to stay idle.

Residents of Drogheda were up in arms when the local Health Board sacked Colman Muldoon because his patients averaged about 10 days in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital—two more than “average”—where he had worked for 29 years.  They’re even angrier that the Board shelled out €572,000 in damages, paid legal bills of €617,750, and is paying his salary for five years even though he is barred from entering the hospital.

Muldoon had sought reinstatement, and calls the settlement “a disgusting waste of money,” but says the pressure to agree to stay away was too great. The Board is paying his salary through retirement.