Details of more hospital cutbacks as a result of Budget shortfalls emerged yesterday following revelations that cancer and dialysis services may have to be reduced at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
The Irish Times has learned that St James's Hospital is likely to face a shortfall of about €20 million this year, while hospital consultants at University College Hospital in Galway (UCHG) have been told to carry out 7,500 fewer treatments in 2003.
UCHG doctors have been asked to cut back on their workload, according to sources. The move comes as the Western Health Board faces an effective 6 per cent cut in funding for 2003.
UCHG has been told to cut its level of service by 15 per cent compared with that offered in 2002.
Sources have also confirmed that the expansion of the coronary care unit at UCHG from four to eight beds has been postponed. A planned expansion of laboratory facilities at the hospital has also been shelved.
Two wards which were closed for refurbishment before Christmas are unlikely to reopen and the contracts of temporary staff have not been renewed.
The 10-member directorate of St James's Hospital, the financial controller, Mr Vincent Doherty, the hospital's chief executive, Mr John O'Brien, and the chairman of the hospital board are to meet next Monday to discuss the crisis.
"As far as I can glean, something of the order of €20 million is the level of difference between what the hospital needs and what is available to it in the coming year," a source told The Irish Times. "If that translates into reality, we are going to find it almost impossible to run the hospital at the level it is being run at present."
Asked whether patients' welfare would be affected or whether people may die as a result of such cuts, the source said: "I think that would be an overstatement, but I also think we would have to be very careful indeed to ensure that that did not happen. But, from what I understand, the news on Monday is going to be very bad."
The chief executive of Beaumont Hospital, Mr John Lamont, issued a statement yesterday in response to speculation that patients' lives would be at risk if services such as dialysis were cut back in an effort to contain costs.
He said that the hospital would "prioritise savings in areas which do not directly impact on services to patients".
Speculation about the impact of services cuts came on Wednesday following the reading in the Dáil of a leaked internal memo on the financial situation at Beaumont.
Mr Lamont said that the hospital management deeply regretted "any distress which may have been caused to patients and staff by the deliberate circulation of these discussion documents".
He said: "The list was prepared as a discussion document only, for consideration by senior hospital staff, including consultants, in advance of formal negotiations with the ERHA on our service provider plan."
He said it was "totally incorrect" to represent "the list of cost headings and possible options" as "anything more that that".
An Eastern Regional Health Authority spokeswoman said that 2003 would be a "difficult year for the acute hospitals", with a need for "tight management of costs".
However, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has rebuffed statements that hospital are facing massive cutbacks.
Speaking on Newstalk 106 yesterday morning, he said: "We haven't been cutting back on hospitals."
The Minister added: "Hospitals have been getting the largest share of taxpayers' resources in recent years. As the Minister for Health has said himself, there are structural problems in the management of the health services."