HSE almost €25m over budget in January, report finds

Hospitals must reduce budgets by minimum 2-2.5% to address acute services deficit

More older patients were admitted to emergency departments in January compared to the same time last year, a HSE performance report has found. File photograph: Reuters
More older patients were admitted to emergency departments in January compared to the same time last year, a HSE performance report has found. File photograph: Reuters

The Health Service Executive (HSE) ran almost €25 million over budget in January, a HSE performance report has found.

The report said as of January 31st, 2015, the health service spent €1.037 billion against a budget of €1.013 billion, leaving a deficit of €24.4 million.

It said €13 million of the deficit relates to the demand-led areas of the Primary Care Reimbursement scheme, State claims, local schemes and pensions.

“The sustained exceptional level of delayed discharges, the cost pressures these are causing and the level of management time and capacity taken up with dealing with this issue within our acute and social care services is beyond the level anticipated in the service plan,” the report said.

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It states hospitals will need to reduce their budgets by a “minimum” of 2 to 2.5 per cent this year to address the deficit in acute services.

Emergency departments

More older patients were admitted to emergency departments in January compared to the same time last year, a HSE performance report has found.

The report found there were 6.8 per cent more emergency admissions of patients aged 65 years and over compared to January last year.

“This report indicates reduced activity in emergency departments compared to this time last year but notes that there were considerably more older patients with complex medical needs who required longer stays in hospital,” Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said.

The first monthly HSE Performance Report of 2015 provides data from January and is the first performance report to be produced under the new accountability framework.

“The demographic trends such as ageing of the population that we have identified have manifested themselves in more older people requiring longer stays in hospital,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said he was concerned about the cost of agency staff and overtime which “are not within profile”.

“On the positive side, we continue to meet our targets for specialist palliative care provided within seven days of referral, for those in inpatient beds and for people in their own homes.

“We are also largely on target for the number of Home Care Packages and for the number of home help hours provided,” he said.

Targets

The report said 43 people who were on the waiting list for colonoscopies in January were seen by February, with the exception of one patient who was seen by appointment in March.

The report said treatment referrals for cancer patients, with the exception of prostate cancer, are on target.

Some 11,589 women attended Breastcheck screening in January and 26,156 women were screened for cervical cancer - 13.7 per cent ahead of the projected figure.

In January 2015, hospitals nationally reported a 57.4 per cent compliance with an average 48-hour working week for all non-consultant hospital doctors.