THE DIRECTOR of Operations in the HSE West area, John Hennessy, has stated that “there are too many health facilities in the west and we are going to have to rationalise and streamline them”.
Mr Hennessy confirmed that outside the acute hospital network stretching from Limerick to Donegal, there are 43 residential facilities scattered across the west.
“It is a big burden on the cost, efficiency and scale of maintaining infrastructure like that, it is a huge challenge,” said Mr Hennessy.
“I don’t see closures. That is not what we are about. We serve a wide disparate area in terms of geography, but whether the facilities would continue to operate on the same level and same scale is the question for us.”
The senior HSE official stated that the landscape had changed in relation to choice for patients for access to long-stay care.
Mr Hennessy made his comments as the HSE’s assistant national director for finance, Liam Minihan, confirmed that HSE West would be seeking cost cuts totalling €33 million between now and the end of the year across all sectors.
This is in order to bridge a €49 million shortfall which was identified at the end of July, made up of a €46.3 million hospital deficit and €3 million deficit in primary community continuing care.
The figures show that the Midwest Regional Hospital in Limerick is €16.2 million – or 20 per cent – over budget for the first seven months of the year, with Galway University Hospital over budget by €9.9 million – or 6 per cent.
Mr Minihan said that in addition to the anticipated €33 million in cost-containment measures, the HSE is seeking to secure national/local procurement savings of €15.8 million for the remainder of the year.
Mr Minihan said the savings would be made in the hospitals and each county through addressing overtime, agency and absenteeism costs along with seasonal closures.
Mr Minihan said that to the end of July, the HSE West spent €19 million on agency staff, with €9.2 million paid to medical staff, €3.7 million to nurses, €2 million to paramedics and €4 million to all other grades.
“At year-end, we can’t contemplate anything other than breaking even,” he said.
The HSE West’s budget for 2011 was reduced by €120 million and the spend to the end of July 2011 is €48 million less than the figure for the corresponding period last year.
