The number of days on which breast cancer patients can be seen for biopsies at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) has been cut as a result of the Health Service Executive's (HSE) ongoing drive to cut costs, it has emerged.
The treatment of these patients normally takes place five days a week but this has now been cut to three days a week.
The HSE's ban on recruitment has, according to the hospital's medical board, also led to delays in the turnaround time for smear tests at the hospital from four to six weeks and has resulted in the analysis of MRSA swabs being restricted. The second CT scanner at the hospital had to close for two weeks.
Efforts by the hospital's laboratory to achieve higher standards in the wake of it giving wrong results to a breast cancer patient are being impeded, according to the hospital's medical board. There are more than 15 staff vacancies at present in the hospital's pathology department.
The effects of the recruitment ban on the hospital are outlined in a letter sent last week to the hospital's management team by the hospital's medical board.
It states that the cut in breast services "will impact on time to diagnosis and time to theatre" for patients.
It also says there are 45 nursing vacancies at the hospital and this "may result in the imminent closure" of up to 11 beds. "The consequent effect will be reduced bed availability and more patients on trolleys in the A&E department. The recently-published A&E review set chronological targets for emergency admission to beds, and it will not be possible to reach these targets if beds are closed," it says.
Under the ban, hospitals are not allowed to take on extra agency or locum staff or to sanction extra overtime by staff.
The HSE's ban on recruitment, which began in September and has now been extended to the end of this month in an attempt to reduce the HSE's €200 million-plus financial deficit, is to be discussed at a meeting of health service unions today. They will decide how to respond to it and whether or not to take protest action. There will also be a Labour Relations Commission hearing on the issue this day week.
The UCHG medical board letter also highlights the fact that the hospital will not be doing serological testing for atypical pneumonia or serological testing for "Farmers' Lung" or the herpes simplex virus. The turnaround time for tests such as thyroid function tests and fertility tests has increased, it says.
Furthermore it states that the necessary nursing staff have not been recruited to treat over 120 patients who are waiting for phototherapy, and patients awaiting prostate brachytherapy (radiation treatment) are being put on a waiting list. There are 30 on it now.
In addition the letter says there are 25 vacancies in the departments of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and social work and this could increase the problem of delayed discharges.
Minister for Health Mary Harney and the head of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, have claimed the cost-cutting measures are having no impact on patient care.