St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin has confirmed that it is to investigate allegations surrounding hospital procurement practices, after it emerged that some employees had received expensive gifts from suppliers, which is in breach of their rules of employment.

The allegations were made in an episode of RTÉ's Prime Time on Thursday. The episode focused on the practices of some purchasing officers, who were involved in the procurement of goods for St Vincent's and the Beacon Hospital, with Eurosurgical Ltd, a Dublin-based surgical supplies company.

According to the report, these purchasing officers received expensive gifts, including holidays, which is a breach of their rules of employment. Some were also found to be passing on commercially sensitive information to Eurosurgical Ltd, such as the price lists of competitors.

St Vincent's said that it has established ‘an internal investigation team to examine the allegations notified to the hospital'. This will be chaired by an ‘external forensic specialist'.

It also said that two employees have been taken off duty, ‘with pay and with immediate effect'. They will not return to duty while the investigation is taking place.

The HSE and the Minister for Health have been informed of the allegations, however, they pointed out that neither St Vincent's or the Beacon are HSE hospitals.

"The Beacon is a private hospital and St Vincent's is a privately owned institution with its own board of management. None of the people who featured in the programme are HSE or Department of Health employees," a statement from the Department of Health said.

It added that the HSE has suspended all payments to Eurosurgical Ltd ‘pending further inquiries'.