Cutbacks at hospitals will impact on patient care, warns INO

BUDGETARY cutbacks planned by the Health Service Executive for three hospitals in the Midlands will have an immediate and severe impact on patient care, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).

The INO has reacted angrily to the plans, particularly the decision to cut the number of agency nurses hired by 25% in maternity hospitals and stop non-emergency surgery by locum consultants so offer staff can go on leave without the need for locum cover.

Just last week, the INO held a protest outside the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise over what it claims are unsafe staffing levels at the unit.

The HSE says it has to cut costs at hospitals in Westmeath, Offaly and Laois in order to “operate within the approved funding allocation in the current year”. Cost overruns of 9.2% have been recorded in Dublin and Midlands hospitals. “This decision is in line with the HSE’s commitment to prudent financial management and the delivery of value for money and the best possible service for patients,” said a HSE spokesman.

A HSE memo, seen by the Irish Examiner, shows that the proposed cuts will take place over seven different areas, including reducing expenditure on furniture, education, office and computer expenses and travel services at hospitals in Portlaoise, Mullingar and Tullamore.

INO midlands industrial relations officer Joe Hoolan said agency nurses were vital to the Midland Regional Hospital as they were understaffed but couldn’t hire staff nurses due to the HSE’s ban on recruitment. “These cuts will have a big impact on frontline services which are already overstretched as it is. The hospitals in the Midlands need up to 30 agency nurses a day because the employment ceiling means that they can’t make permanent positions available. It is the HSE that has forced the dependance on agency nurses,” he said.