HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm today defended a plan by executive to close hundreds of beds at acute hospitals across the State next year in a bid to cut costs and transform the way hospital services are run.
The proposal to close up to 1,100 beds is included in a draft service plan for 2010 that is before a meeting of the HSE board today.
Prof Drumm said the HSE has been reducing the number of admissions to hospitals “year in year out”.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One programme he said: "Four years ago we were talking about spending €2.5 billion on 3,000 more beds, we are now doing more without those beds and with a thousand less.
“What it’s [the HSE] doing is treating people in a much more effective way.”
The bed closures, if implemented, will be in addition to at least 900 bed closures in 2009.
There were also reports yesterday the draft plan was suggesting cutting the number of patients admitted to hospital by 54,000 this year.
Prof Drumm said about 30 per cent of admissions stay in hospitals for less than 48 hours and “never need to come into hospital”. He said the money saved will be put into front line services.
He said the HSE will not be reducing services to the public and the proof of that is “over the last two to three years we have seen a dramatic drop of people waiting for elective procedures”.
The plan is also understood to warn that additional cuts in services in some areas could take place if there is no agreement with trade unions on reform measures. Unions have ruled out any co-operation with the change programme in protest at pay cuts introduced in the Budget.
Impact has served notice of industrial action to begin on Monday, January 25th, and said it will instruct workers to stop co-operation with any new work practices or modernisation measures.
Prof Drumm said although people have taken “enormous pain right across the public service”, if the services don’t continue to change then the people that suffer "are those that we are here to serve”.
