‘Next year most challenging ever for health services’

NEXT year will be the most challenging year ever experienced by the health services, Health Minister Mary Harney has warned.

As well as a cut of €800 million in the health budget, a further €400m would have to found to deal with extra pressure on the services caused by demographic changes.

Ms Harney told a conference on health spending that the cuts in 2010 would be considerable and that the cost of providing services would be looked at first.