No rescue package for cash crisis hospitals
Revised spending plans for the year ahead, published yesterday, contain no new increases for health, while major acute hospitals are examining a number of drastic cost-cutting measures.
Meanwhile, nurses have warned that they will take industrial action if cuts impact on their ability to deliver top-class care to patients.
General Secretary of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation Liam Doran said: “This could well be the calm before the storm.”
At least three major Dublin hospitals are facing cuts of up to 10% in funding, while other acute hospitals across the country are in a similar situation.
Minister McCreevy yesterday said there had been major increases in health funding and laid some of the blame for the crisis on hospital management.
“There are management issues regarding the health service,” the minister told Newstalk 106 FM. “We have had considerable increases in funding in recent years and now it’s a matter of getting proper management structures in place.”
Some of the biggest hospitals in the country, including Beaumont and the Mater, are examining cuts which include a recruitment freeze, bed closures and caps on various treatment.
However, Health Minister Micheál Martin has urged hospital management to save money in non-clinical areas.
He said hospitals had to decide themselves on how to manage, but said he was “making it very clear” that there was no basis for the curtailment of vital treatment for cancer or kidney disease.
Hospital consultants have been advised to lobby strongly to resist severe budget cuts which hit patients.
Secretary General of the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association Finbarr Fitzpatrick said consultants had an obligation under Medical Council guidelines to ensure financial limitations did not put patients at risk.
The Government has argued that the health sector received a record amount of funding this year while services have improved remarkably in recent years.
But A&E consultant at Cork University Hospital, Dr Stephen Cusack, said while hospitals such as his own received funding increases, these were being wiped out by inflation.
“Our budget is tight and we are looking at ways of working within it as much as possible. The hospital got slightly more than a 4% increase this year, but with inflation running at 5%, we are facing a challenge.”
Most major acute hospitals contacted yesterday declined to say what their financial situation was, saying they were still in negotiations with health boards.
Mr Doran of the INO said most major acute hospitals were facing the same difficulties as the Mater and Beaumont.
“The INO’s 28,000 members will decide on taking industrial action if staff are not consulted about proposed changes which would leave them with a heavier workload,” he said.
