More cuts on cards as HSE struggles to control cost over-runs

Hospitals and community services have been ordered to impose even deeper “cost containment” plans if the HSE is to meet its target to shed €353m from its budget this year.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien told the latest meeting of the Oireachtas health committee that current cutbacks are failing to have the desired effect.

He said that in the first five months of this year, the entire health service was €49.34m over budget — mirroring a problem which has grown increasingly more pronounced every year since 2007.