Huge budget overrun warning
The Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) said it was seriously concerned Government spending plans would not cover higher healthcare costs.
Spending by the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) National Hospitals Office was almost 6% over budget during the first six months of this year, equivalent to €280 million in a full year.
And the total HSE budget was more than 3% over budget in the same period, equivalent to 490m in a full year.
The association also warned in its pre-budget submission that patient care would suffer because inadequate budgets delayed treatments, increased risks and suffering.
Furthermore, the failure to deal with health problems at an earlier stage would increase costs into the future.
The consultants’ association said inadequate funding and embargoes introduced this year had increased waiting times, reduced the quality and quantity of service delivery and pushed costs into next year.
IHCA assistant secretary general Martin Varley said the HSE figures seen by the association showed a budget overrun for the first six months of the year at €245m. He said the €490m overspend calculated for the full year did not take account of the cutbacks introduced in September that could reduce the overall figure.
The HSE has imposed a recruitment freeze until the end of the year and has also introduced other cost-saving measures.
The health authority said exceptions had been made where frontline staff were needed urgently.
The pre-budget estimates provide a 5% increase in the HSE’s gross budget that includes a 7% increase in each of the authority’s regions.
An extra €1.1bn will be provided for the HSE next year, bringing to €12bn the total expenditure on public health services.
But the IHCA said the increase was not enough given the overspend during the first six months of this year by the health service and rising healthcare costs.
