The Health Service Executive is expected to overspend its budget by at least €510 million this year, according to the latest financial update published today.
However, this figure does not include an expected overrun on costs incurred by the State Claims Agency, mostly related to health service insurance claims, according to the HSE's performance assurance report for August. No estimate is given for this element of the overrun.
The report also says there is a “certain degree of uncertainty” about the forecast for the overrun, which will require a supplementary estimate.
The HSE argues half of the 2014 deficit relates to budget reductions outside its control and therefore not deliverable, including €108m in unspecified pay savings and €30m in pensions excess.
Spending to the end of August was €327 million over target, according to the report.
HSE secretary general Tony O'Brien told the Oireachtas health committee today that hospitals will overspend their collective budgets by an estimated €273 million by the end of this year. This compares to an €180 million cost overrun last year.
Emergency department admissions were up almost 2 per cent, outpatient attendances were up 25 per cent, while the ambulance service was receiving almost 1,000 extra calls each month.
Despite the overspend, Mr O’Brien said that in relative terms, the health service had the lowest average supplementary of the six Government department or agencies requiring one since 2008.
He said the HSE was “99.8 per cent compliant” with its available budget over the period.
Mr O’Brien called on the Sunday Business Post to release detail of an alleged HSE document which, the paper claimed recently, showed that waiting lists were being “manipulated”.
The HSE had no policy of manipulating waiting lists and would not condone such an action. “Had the HSE been aware that any manager urged employees to manipulate waiting lists, if indeed it ever happened, this would be the subject of appropriate disciplinary action.”
He said it was neither just nor equitable that the newspaper had not contacted the HSE before publication, so it could bring “a modicum of balance to an otherwise one-sided article”.
It was also unreasonable that the newspaper had refused to release “some elementary detail” of the document on which the article was based, he said. If the document did not exist it should withdraw the allegation.
Both Mr O'Brien and Minister for Health Leo Varadkar told the committee the risk to Ireland posed by Ebola was low and the health services were well prepared for any cases.
