€400m additional cuts - What planet is the HSE on?

ON MONDAY the cuts envisaged for the HSE’s Service Plan for 2009 outlined the necessity for €530 million worth of savings, but yesterday, just one day later, the HSE was saying that it would also need to slash the health budget by a further €400m to bring the projected cuts close to €1 billion.

In one day the necessary cuts almost doubled from the service plan published 24 hours earlier. The HSE is obviously reeling from the cuts.

The plan announced on Monday was based on figures that were known two months ago, but since then the numbers have changed dramatically.