Another prominent Dublin hospital is to close a number of beds due to a shortfall in funding, it emerged this evening.
Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin said it has been forced to close one ward with the loss of 25 beds, effectively reducing its capacity by ten per cent.
The hospital says it may also be forced to close a second ward and has plans to curtail several other wards to a five-day week schedule.
In a statement, the hospital said it was facing "the reality of a shortfall in funding" and a number of services would have to be cut.
It said while maintaining "equitable access" to the hospital it would take no new or transfer patients of 16 years and up, shift a number of inpatients to day cases and reduce surgery levels.The hospital said it had overrun its budget for 2002 by €2.4 million and when this was added to the cost of inflation and subtracted from its budget allocation for this year there was a €7.4 million shortfall.
The hospital said: "We are engaged in ongoing discussion with the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) regarding funding."
"We must nonetheless look to curtail costs and ensure that resources currently available are effectively directed to patient care," it added.
It also said it would have to review a number of temporary staff contracts and planned new posts.