Merging hospitals could save €20m, says Harney

MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney estimated that €20 million could be saved annually by the amalgamation of the three Dublin children’s hospitals.

She said the alternative to a single children’s hospital was to rebuild two new hospitals at Crumlin and Temple Street.

Ms Harney said that bringing the resources together would provide better services for the patient.

“We would have one payroll department, one human resources department, one department dealing with waste and one with materials, one central sterile department and so on,” she added.

She said there would be one chief executive and one director of nursing.

In the short term, said Ms Harney, they were seeking to integrate those services. For example, she added, it had now been agreed to have a single department of surgery.

The reality, said Ms Harney, was that irrespective of who was in her departmental seat, the State was not going to have unlimited resources for healthcare.

“There is no country in the world with unlimited resources, for healthcare,” she added. “What we have got to do is our best.” Ms Harney said that substantial resources had been allocated to Crumlin hospital and it was being asked for no more than any other hospital, which was a 3 per cent cut.

She added that when Fine Gael published its pre-budget plan last October, the party had said that every service must find 3 per cent savings in every activity.

It was a time of unprecedented economic challenges and it was not an option to come into the House and introduce a supplementary budget for hospitals, she added.

The Minister was responding to a Fine Gael Private Member’s motion, moved by health spokesman Dr James Reilly, calling on the Government to reverse its decision to reduce the budget for Crumlin hospital by €9.1 million. Dr Reilly accused the Government of having “penny-wise, pound-foolish” policy.

“While a 3 per cent cut across all hospitals might on the face of it seem sensible, surely it would be more sensible to look at the efficiencies of each hospital and to reward the ones that are efficient and penalise those who are inefficient,” he added.

Reversing the reduction, he said, would alleviate “the needless pain and suffering of hundreds of children”. Dr Reilly warned that the budget cutback would delay cardiac surgery and turn many urgent cases into emergencies.

“It is going to delay orthopaedic surgery, with lifelong consequences for children,” he added.

He said that in 2004 the hospital budget was €98.6 million, while this year it was €134 million, an increase of €36 million.

“But what we have to examine here is: what happened to the €36 million?” he said.

“Well, €24.3 million went in pay awards made by the Government, while the balance of €12.4 million, or 13 per cent, was available to deliver increased volume and complexities.”