ROLLING THEATRE closures will be introduced by Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital for the remainder of the year to cut costs.
The hospital, which last week admitted it was closing 52 beds after the issue was highlighted at a nurses’ conference, said yesterday it was also going to close one theatre each week for the rest of the year.
A different theatre will be closed each week, affecting different specialities at different times. However, cancer, transplant and neurosurgery patients will not be affected.
After the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) highlighted the theatre closures yesterday, claiming 1,400 patients would have their treatment delayed as a result, the hospital said one of its 11 theatres would be closed for the rest of the year in a bid by the hospital to live within a budget which has been cut by €19 million this year.
A hospital spokesman said it would try to increase the efficiency of other theatres to minimise the impact on patients.
Donal Duffy of the IHCA said the planned closure of two wards and an operating theatre in Beaumont was a stark example of how to mismanage resources in these difficult times.
“The closure will mean that the hospital will make negligible savings whilst up to 1,400 patients will have their treatment delayed this year.”
Figures published in March show the budgets of Dublin’s five main teaching hospitals have been cut by almost €160 million this year. While some of this is accounted for by pay cuts in the public sector, a substantial amount does not and will result in reduced services to patients.
A number of the hospitals are now in discussions with the HSE on what measures they will have to take to stay within budget. The HSE was not commenting on these discussions yesterday. The HSE’s chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, has already said 1,100 beds will be closed this year.
Meanwhile, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, which was at the centre of controversy last year over its closure of wards and theatres when its budget was reduced, has refused to release details of its cost-cutting plans for this year under the Freedom of Information Act. Its budget has been reduced by €14.5 million.
In a letter to The Irish Times the hospital said it was denying access to the information as “disclosure could harm the deliberative process of the hospital” or “have an adverse effect on the management of the hospital (including industrial relations and management of its staff)”.
The Mater hospital also refused a Freedom of Information request from this newspaper for correspondence between the hospital and the HSE on the cut in its budget this year. This was because of “ongoing negotiation between the two bodies”.
A reply from St Vincent’s hospital on April 19th said it had not agreed any cost-containment plan with the HSE, while replies to requests for similar information from St James’s and Tallaght hospitals are awaited.