Financial deficits in Hospitals must not lead to unacceptable cutbacks of healthcare
Financial deficits in Hospitals must not lead to unacceptable cutbacks of healthcare - The Labour Party
- Enormous funding crunch in the Mater of €24.9m and in Beaumont Hospital of €66m is leading to suppliers pausing the supply of essential medical supplies.
- Serious questions about the impact on patient and the extent to which these shortfalls are driving the cancellation of patient appointments and procedures.
- Additional questions about the accuracy of original service level agreement, its provision for the national pay agreements in 2024 and the comprehensiveness of the financial framework need to be urgently answered.
- Concerns for another unilateral cut by HSE to voluntary hospital funding.
Responding to the revelations in the Irish Times this week about the Mater, Beaumont and the Rotunda, Labour Health spokesperson Marie Sherlock expressed dismay that severe funding shortfalls would impact on patient appointments and procedures.
Deputy Sherlock said:
“The prospect that suppliers of essential medical supplies to hospitals would put their accounts “on hold” is deadly serious and we need to hear precisely from the voluntary hospitals what precisely has driven cost overruns and we need an update from their December letter to the HSE.
“We have seen previous Ministers for Health announce health budgets that have purposely underfunded the health service which have required mid year top ups.
“Unfortunately, top ups have become an all too familiar feature of health budgeting over recent years with the HSE describing the budgets as having “built in deficits”.
“We have to ask how these large deficits within voluntary hospitals tallies with the Minister’s savings and productivity strategy of almost two thirds of a billion euros for 2025, announced exactly a month ago today.
“There is an urgent need for the Minister for Health to provide clarity to patients, the public and to health workers on this funding crunch.
“These revelations come as we learned earlier this week that the Rotunda also had to plead for additional funding after they saw a unilateral cut via the HSE’s pay and numbers strategy in July 2024. This was in spite of hospital activity exceeding projected activity accordingly to the HSE service plan.
“The manner in which the Rotunda experienced the unilateral cut mid way through a year, while failing to take account of national pay awards suggests a chaotic, shortsighted and extraordinary type of financial control system within the HSE.”