HSE’s €14bn budget ‘unlikely to ease service woes’

The Health Service Executive’s €14bn budget is unlikely to make any serious headway in alleviating difficulties in the health service, Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman Billy Kelleher claimed yesterday.

While hospitals had received a modest funding increase, it was highly unlikely to make a meaningful difference or help them meet the targets set for them, he noted.

“Of the €119m increase in the hospital budget, just €9m is for expanding existing services or developing new ones. While it appears that the overall ‘goal’ for emergency departments is for 100% of attendees to be discharged or admitted within nine hours, the actual ‘target’ for 2017 is just a 5% improvement on the 2016 outturn.”