Some 115 beds are to be closed at Dublin's Mater Hospital before the end of next month, it was announced last night.
The closures, which account for a fifth of the hospital's beds, are being made in an attempt to cut costs. The hospital said it was facing an €18 million deficit this year unless it took immediate action. The move follows the closure of an 18-bed five-day ward at the hospital earlier this month. The decision was made at a meeting of the hospital board on Tuesday night and relayed to staff and their union representatives yesterday.
All major specialities will be affected, including cardiac surgery. Two 31-bed wards are earmarked for closure as are a number of beds in the intensive care unit.
"What we are trying to do is spread it evenly across the specialities," the hospital's spokeswoman and patient services manager, Ms Phil O'Neill said. "We have an €18 million deficit and really we have no other way of tackling it other than this. This was a last resort. It totally goes against our mission statement and everything we stand for but unfortunately we have no other choice."
She said the decision had come as a big shock to a lot of the staff. All agency nurses would be let go and the contracts of all temporary staff would be reviewed closely when they came up for renewal. Permanent staff working in wards which were closed would be redeployed. The hospital had also sent a memo to all staff yesterday asking them to suggest "other innovative ideas" to cut costs, Ms O'Neill said.
The Mater, which has a number of national specialities including a spinal injuries unit, has about 550 beds and its budget for this year was in the region of €155 million. Up to recently it had been negotiating with the Eastern Regional Health Authority for extra funds for 2003 but Ms O'Neill said these negotiations had now come to an end.
Mr Liam Doran of the Irish Nurses Organisation said that on the day a new partnership deal called Sustaining Progress was adopted, a State public hospital announced it was going to close 22 per cent of its beds due to lack of funds.