Operating theatre closures ‘widespread’

HOSPITAL theatre closures are not just confined to one of the country’s busiest hospitals, they are “widespread” and patients will suffer, Fine Gael has warned.

The party has claimed that Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin, was forced to cancel all non-emergency work until the end of September.

A confidential memo seen by Fine Gael’s Dr Leo Varadkar reveals the hospital is heading for a budget overrun of €3 million and has been forced to make the cutback as part of the Health Service Executive’s “Break-Even Plan 2008”.

Dr Varadkar warned that patients would suffer and there was a risk that serious illnesses will not be detected at an early stage.

“The cutbacks are the second set of cutbacks at the hospital this year and are by far the most savage,” said Dr Varadkar.

He claimed the hospital had been forced to reduce its service back to 2006 levels in order to break even by the end of the year.

FG spokesman on health, Dr James Reilly, said in many instances public hospitals had reduced surgery lists instead of canceling theatre work altogether.

He was aware that non-emergency surgery had been reduced by one day a week in Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital in Dublin. Theatre work has also been reduced in Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, Co Meath, and Galway University Hospital.

“Hospitals should receive a baseline budget and receive a payment thereafter for each procedure, with the payment contingent on its complexity,” he said. “The current situation where a hospital has a budget and once it is gone everything stops is insane.”

The HSE pointed out that many hospitals throughout the country had scaled back elective procedures during the summer in line with consultants’ annual leave and patient preferences.

It was incorrect, however, for Fine Gael to claim it was the second set of cutbacks at Connolly Hospital and the hospital had not reduced activity to 2006 levels, the HSE added.

The hospital was delivering services in line with service plan commitments and working to ensure the hospital remained within budget by the end of the year, the HSE stated.

A spokesman for the hospital said it had been experiencing “sustained pressures” in its A&E department due to the complexity of patients presenting and this has resulted in longer wait times. He added that urgent elective cases and cancer cases would not be affected.