HSE to inform unions of cost-cutting measures for midwest health services

SENIOR HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) management will outline a series of cost-cutting measures for health services in the midwest at a meeting today with unions.

The meeting is part of a series of meetings between the HSE and unions in the HSE West area following confirmation that the HSE is facing a projected overspend of €90 million for the full year in the West.

The area stretches from Co Donegal to Co Limerick and HSE documentation confirms the projected overspend in the Midwest Hospital Network this year is €24.4 million, with the projected overspend in the Northwest and West Acute Hospital Network being €59 million. The document also states that the HSE’s West primary care and community budget in the HSE west area is facing an overspend of €6.2 million for the year.

The document confirmed that the overspend to the end of May was €57.5 million across the HSE West area, with €905.9 million being spent against the allocated budget of €848.4 million for the first five months.

The overspend in the Midwest Acute Hospital Network to the end of May was €15 million, with the overspend in the Northwest and West Acute Hospital Network to the end of May being €28.8 million.

Ahead of the meeting, the HSE briefing document confirmed that there is a statutory obligation on the HSE West area to arrive at a break-even position at the end of the year. The document confirms that the reconfiguration of services in the midwest is placing pressures on this year’s HSE budgets.

This has already involved the ending of 24-hour AE services at Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals, the ending of acute surgery, while the centralisation of medical and critical care is ongoing.

The document states that “considerable cost savings have been achieved this year compared to last year but are not sufficient”.

It also states: “There is a very serious difficulty in achieving the private patient income target due to reduction in private health insurance, infection control processes and cancellation of elective procedures.” The HSE confirms that “various cost containment measures are being implemented at each site and these are kept under review”.

Assistant general secretary with Impact, Andy Pike said the union does expect some frontline services to be hit in the cutbacks.

He said: “I don’t think that they will be permanent, but we are talking about temporary ward and theatre closures. These will be more severe than usual.”

Mr Pike said the overspend in the HSE West area is higher than in other areas because of the spread out of the population.

A presentation by John Hennessy, operations director for the HSE West area, said the area faces huge challenges in 2010.

He cited patient expectations, budgetary discipline, a recruitment moratorium and new accreditation, licensing and standards among the challenges.