HSE cuts acute hospital funding by €200m

Acute hospitals will have €200m less to spend this year — an average 4% reduction per hospital.

However, reductions per hospital are not contained in the new format service plan published yesterday by the HSE as a replacement to the regional service plans of previous years.

Overall, the acute services budget has been cut from €3.9m in 2013 to €3.7m this year, a reduction described as “a challenge” by Ian Carter, national director of acute services.

There will also be a 3% reduction in the number of planned in-patient and day case treatments which will result in 24,660 fewer day case procedures and over 3,000 fewer in-patient treatments.

Just 40 extra staff are provided for in 2014, including 14 posts to provide a long-sought bilateral cochlear implants service at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. Funding for this service is €3.2m.

Areas to receive funding in 2014 include:

* €30m for emergency departments, inpatient day care and outpatient services;

* €570,000 to address the needs of children with narcolepsy;

* €11m for the national cancer control programme;

* €1.48m and six staff to target improvements in maternity care;

* €2.92m and 19 staff towards organ donation and transplantation;

* €3.1m towards junior doctor recruitment to move towards compliance with working hour requirements.

Capital projects to receive funding include €38,000 for Cork University Hospital to be put towards an MRI and CT scanner, as well as €1.4m towards the construction of a new helipad and €3.75m to provide a temporary 50-bed ward.

There is also €26,000 earmarked towards a new respiratory and cystic fibrosis unit at the hospital.

The South Infirmary/ Victoria Hospital is to get €75,000 towards the relocation of its eye department while Bantry Hospital will receive €1m towards a new medical assessment unit.

Funding for CUH was up by €2.7m, Kerry General receives an extra €700,000, and funding for the Mercy University Hospital is up by more than €300,000.

However funding for the South Infirmary is down from €44m to just over €40m. Bantry Hospital also loses about €600,000.

Funding for 2014 is based on projected requirements rather than historic budgets.

Acute hospitals had an overrun last year of €177m, which will be carried into this year. Hospitals will also have to meet the €56m of cost containment measures introduced last year.

The Haddington Road Agreement saving planned for the year is €60m, plus a reconfiguration saving under the formation of the new hospital groups of €7.5m.

Also, €80m relating to the agreement is being held centrally, pending the outcome of an assessment on the allocation of these savings across each HSE service division.