The National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street said yesterday that it would have to consider refusing to accept expectant mothers from counties adjoining Dublin as a result of a shortfall in its funding.
Its Master, Dr Declan Keane, said that the hospital delivered 1,000 more babies than it should have last year, and still its budget had been cut this year.
Holles Street is the latest hospital to have to consider drastic measures as a consequence of budget cuts. The Mater Hospital announced on Tuesday that it would have to close beds and lay off staff to stay within budget this year. A leaked memo from Beaumont Hospital showed that it was considering ending round-the-clock dialysis treatments. Collectively, the major Dublin teaching hospitals face a €100 million deficit this year.
Dr Keane said that his hospital had stopped taking routine bookings for its maternity services from counties outside Dublin, Wicklow, Meath and Kildare two years ago because of pressure on its services. Now it was considering further "geographic restrictions".
The National Maternity Hospital received a budget of just under €36 million this year, which is a reduction on last year. This, combined with the fact that the hospital faced into 2003 with a deficit, is posing problems for it. At this stage, however, it has booked in patients up to next September and it cannot turn these expectant mothers away. Any decision it makes to curtail numbers will therefore not come into effect until next year.
Meanwhile, the Master of the Coombe Women's Hospital, Dr Seán Daly, told The Irish Times that his hospital's budget had been cut by 5 per cent this year.
Dr Daly said that he could not contemplate laying off midwives because he could not predict the numbers of women who would arrive in labour and need attention. "We will have to accept that we will be over-budget this year."
He added that the hospital would have to look for ways to generate extra revenue.
Hospital representatives are to have an early meeting with the Eastern Regional Health Authority to discuss the funding difficulties.