Children’s hospital cuts deepens health crisis

THE crisis in the health service deepened last night with the country’s main children’s hospital announcing a series of severe cuts.

Our Lady’s Hospital For Sick Children, in Crumlin, has already closed 25 of its 243 beds and the closure of a second ward is under discussion. Management is also reviewing all temporary staff contracts and planned new posts at the hospital with a view to cutting staff numbers.

The cutbacks come just one day after the Mater Hospital announced it is to reduce staff numbers by 163.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority, which supplies services to 40 agencies, including the Mater and Crumlin, said 248 jobs have to go in these areas.

Blaming the cuts on a 7.4m funding shortfall, the hospital is also planning to:

Cease accepting patients over the age of 16. Most children treated at the hospital are 14 and under, but older children in need of specialist treatment only available at Crumlin are referred by GPs.

Admit patients on the day of surgery rather than the night before.

Discharge as many children as possible at the weekends to close wards.

Switch emphasis from treating inpatients to day cases to speed up discharge.

No Sunday surgery and theatres to close at 5.30pm, except for emergencies.

Reduction in numbers treated in line with levels in 2000, which means cutting outpatient numbers by 5,000 on last year’s level and inpatients by more than 500.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said the cuts were particularly worrying because the hospital was the main specialist area for most paediatric procedures.

INO industrial relations officer Phil Ní Sheaghdha said some cases were already referred outside of Ireland. Last year 26 children were sent overseas and seven have been treated abroad so far this year.

However, Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the situation would worsen because of the cap on public service recruitment imposed by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy

Meanwhile, the cap on recruitment will also prevent the opening of a new breast cancer treatment clinic in the North Eastern Health Board (NEHB), the Irish Medical Times reports.

Leading breast cancer specialist Maurice Stokes said the one-stop shop, due to open at the end of the year, had funding for surgeons, radiologists and pathologists, but not for the staff needed to carry out mammograms or to prepare slides for pathologists or do clerical work.