Hospital faces cuts and fines anomaly

One of the country’s busiest children’s hospitals has been ordered to cut its surgical theatre procedures by one quarter — despite facing €25,000 fines for every month a patient is on a long-term waiting list for these same procedures.

The bizarre situation was revealed by a senior consultant at Temple St Children’s Hospital, who said the contradictory statements from the HSE and Department of Health underlined mismanagement in the system.

Michael O’Keeffe, a consultant ophthalmologist at the facility, said HSE officials have told hospital management it must close one of its four surgical theatres every day due to deepening budget cuts.