HSE €53m over-budget by end of February

THE HEALTH service already faces significant financial pressure with net overspending of more than €53 million recorded by the end of February, official figures show.

The Health Service Executive’s first financial report of the year shows overall spending was €42.9 million over the official budget, while the amount the health service collects in income was €11 million behind target.

The report says hospitals accounted for €22 million of the deficit, while other care groups such as services in the community were €17.6 million over-budget.

“We know that some hospitals came into 2012 with levels of expenditure which were too high relative to their available resource. These hospitals have suffered further budget cuts in 2012,” states the report.

Tallaght and Beaumont hospitals had overruns of about €1.7 million each while St Vincent’s hospital had a deficit of €1.3 million, with the figure for St James’s Hospital at about €1 million.

The report also indicates that public nursing homes had deficits of €2 million due to the introduction of a new system of paying for those covered by the Government’s “fair deal” scheme.

“This means that public nursing homes have costs which they cannot recover from Fair Deal because they are now reimbursed on a named-client basis,” it states.

“If clients do not choose a public home – and clients have the legal right to choose public homes run into financial problems – this is a challenge for the accounting officer as all salaries and running costs must be met from the voted allocation. The key requirement for nursing homes is to maintain a 95 per cent occupancy rate.”

The HSE report again warns there will be closures of public nursing home beds: “. . . Public units are losing significant staff and staff costs. Some public beds will have to close as a result.”

The report states fewer than half of all cardiac emergency calls made in January were responded to within the target response time.

It maintains less than a quarter of other life-threatening calls were responded to within the target time.

The target time for both categories of calls is set at eight minutes.

In January, of the 265 cardiac calls made, 118 met the eight-minute target. And of the 7,249 other life-threatening calls, 1,656 met the target.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Connolly hospital in Blanchardstown is facing having to make €10 million in savings this year to allow it to come in within its budget.

A spokeswoman for the HSE in Dublin/North East said in a statement: “Management in Connolly Hospital have been meeting with staff to discuss ongoing plans to ensure the hospital . . . remains within its allocated yearly budget.”