Martin: Hospitals must live within budget

Hospitals will have to live within their budget despite an escalating funding crisis, the country’s health minister warned today.

Micheal Martin said the Government was not going to prematurely intervene by “throwing the budget to the wind“.

“I have my budget and that’s it,” Mr Martin said.

“We have our allocation and the health system is going to have to live within the allocation we have received.”

His warning came after three major Dublin hospitals warned of difficulties due to a lack of funding in recent weeks.

Yesterday Dublin’s Mater Hospital said it would have to close wards and cut services by 10% to stay within its budget.

The capital’s Beaumont Hospital also expressed concern at difficulties last week, while St Luke’s radiotherapy hospital today warned it needed significant investment to treat cancer patients more quickly.

However Mr Martin, speaking today on radio, said the Eastern Region hospitals were facing problems because they had come in with a deficit.

“The Eastern Region Health Service will have to manage within the budget that has been allocated,” he said.

He rejected the “air of desperation” one consultant said was present in the health sector.

“This year again after the revised estimate we are putting in €925m into our health service and the bulk of that is going towards pay,” he said.

“Consultants benefit from that, nurses benefit from that, all of the professionals and the non-professional staff within the health service are benefiting from the increased investment, because the bulk of it is going into staff and improving the quality of the service delivered by staff.”

Olivia Mitchell, health spokeswoman for opposition party Fine Gael, called on Mr Martin to intervene in the Mater Hospital crisis to ensure patients’ safety.

“Hospital budgets cannot be reduced by 10% in real terms without having catastrophic affects,” she said.

“The Mater Hospital is already carrying accumulated debts and adding to these debts is unsustainable and will further reduce services.”