The main Dublin teaching hospitals are facing new financial difficulties, having collectively overrun their budgets by almost €20 million in the first seven months of the year.
A financial analysis drawn up by the Eastern Regional Health Authority, which funds the hospitals for the Department of Health, maintained that spending on expensive cancer drugs had increased significantly.
The financial report, drawn up around six weeks ago, reveals that Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin had recorded a financial deficit of over €2.16 million up to the end of July. Last week the hospital was at the centre of controversy when elective or non-urgent surgery for a number of children was cancelled due to a shortage of specialist intensive-care nurses.
The Government and the hospital denied suggestions by Fine Gael in the Dáil that the cancellation was due to a lack of resources.
In its financial assessment, the Eastern Regional Health Authority said that it was in close contact with management at Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin with regard to expenditure over the remaining months of the year.
The ERHA told the Department of Health that the main teaching institutions, which include the large voluntary hospitals such as the Mater, Beaumont, St James's, St Vincent's and Tallaght, were showing deficits of €19.3 million between them up to July. If these overruns were confirmed at the end of the year, the hospitals would face the deficits being charged against their allocations for next year.
The financial analysis said drug costs at the teaching hospitals had increased significantly in the month of July by around €700,000 to €6.1 million.
At Tallaght Hospital drug costs were up 36 per cent in the month, while at the Mater expenditure on drugs increased by 32 per cent.
The Eastern Regional Health Authority told the Department of Health that the three area health boards in the region, the East Coast Area Health Board, the Northern Area Health Board and the South Western Area Health Board, had a combined financial deficit of €16.1 million for the first seven months of the year.
