Ailing hospitals on life support

Hospitals need to tighten their budgets, but at what cost, asks Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

THE latest health service cutbacks are rightly seen as — to use that infamous 1980s election slogan — an attack on the old, the sick, and the vulnerable.

But they’re not exactly a walk in the park for our hospitals’ accountants, managers, and medical staff, either. As part of Health Minister James Reilly’s controversial plan to save the system from financial ruin, already overstretched facilities are set to take the brunt of the economic pain.