Hospital budget cut because it can’t afford to assess its own workload

IT has been reported that several general hospitals have had their budgets cut for “inefficiencies”.

Among these was Mallow General Hospital where the budget has been reduced by €571,234.

Mallow has the smallest budget of any general hospital in the country, despite having a workload far greater than many comparable hospitals.

Relative to its workload and patient throughput, its budget is derisory. A reduction in budget of this magnitude will have a catastrophic effect on a service that is already under constant enormous strain. If Mallow hospital does so much with so little, how can it be that its budget is then reduced on the basis of ‘case-mix’ — a system that supposedly rewards efficient hospitals?

The answer is that the budget of the hospital is not sufficient to support enough clerical officers to measure patient throughput.

Therefore, the returns from Mallow every year are incomplete and grossly understate the true workload of the hospital. On the basis of this inaccurate data, the hospital’s budget is then cut. The hospital is penalised for having a budget so inadequate that it cannot measure its own activity.

Of the many problems that beset our health service, one that receives very little attention is the gross disparity in allocation of resources between different hospitals and areas. The Mallow situation is an eloquent reflection of the seriousness and sophistication of the HSE in addressing this problem.

Dr Cornelius Cronin MD FRCPI

Physician

Mallow General Hospital

Co Cork