Radical cost-cutting will hit patients, warns hospital chairman

PATIENTS and the teaching status of Dublin’s Mater Hospital are likely to suffer because of radical cost-cutting measures, its chairman has claimed.

Speaking at a recent board meeting, John Morgan said he had received a range of internal correspondence expressing “sincere and deep-felt opposition” to the perceived extreme nature of the board’s action.

The cost-cutting measures, announced in March, include a decision to reduce patient admissions by 3,200 this year; the closure of 115 beds by March 2004; reduction of overtime, on-call levels and agency payments; and the non-filling of vacancies as they arise.