Inquiry into pregnancy counselling service

The HSE will investigate concerns over the advice being provided by the Crisis Pregnancy Counselling Service, it emerged yesterday.

HSE director general designate Tony O’Brien said the probe will be chaired by Bridget McManus, former secretary general of the Department of Education.

He said it followed an internal review into claims that some counsellors gave information about how to illegally smuggle the abortion pill into Ireland.

Mr O’Brien commented on the investigation at a meeting of the joint Oireachtas committee on health and children, which also heard details of the cost overrun in the health service which is now at €399m in the year to date.

The deficit is due to hospital overspend of €207m, community scheme spend of €180m, and €22m spent within community services.

Mr O’Brien told the committee there had been an extra 7,091 emergency admissions in the first nine months of this year, an extra 10,260 inpatient treatments, and an additional 11,257 day case treatments. Day case activity rose by 21,517.

There was also an extra 144,540 individuals issued with medical cards since last December, more than the 105,000 envisaged. Health Minister James Reilly said the problem was compounded by “unacceptably long delays” in the processing of health insurance claims involving hospitals.

The HSE and the three main insurers have agreed in principle on an acceler-ated income collection process to generate a once-off cash flow benefit of €125m this year.

Committee members criticised the HSE on a number of issues, including cuts to home help hours. Dr Reilly said the HSE had been told to only reduce hours following a full assessment and that no one should be informed of cuts to their hours by voicemail.

Laverne McGuinness, the HSE director of integrated services, said that while there had been reductions in home help hours — with 59,000 of the 72,000 reduced hours being in the south of the country — in many areas the number of hours being provided was still more than those outlined in the HSE service plan.

Dr Reilly said a number of initiatives would be pursued over the course of Ireland’s presidency of the European Council, and that cross-border issues, such as the possible sharing of air ambulance services, would be explored.