Minister for Health Mary Harney insisted yesterday that patient care was not being affected by the ban on recruitment imposed by the Health Service Executive or the range of cost-cutting measures introduced by hospitals across the State.
The chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, also claimed the measures would have no impact on patient care.
Their comments came a day after it emerged up to 40 staff were being let go at Sligo General Hospital due to pressure on the hospital's budget.
However, the chairman of the Sligo hospital's medical board, Dr Niall Considine, yesterday described the cull of temporary staff at the hospital - with four locum consultants and 30 agency nurses to go - as "swingeing cuts", and said despite assurances by Prof Drumm that these measures will not affect patient care, he is sure they will. He said breast surgery will be cut by 50 per cent.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) has asked the Labour Relations Commission to intervene.
Speaking in Killarney, where she attended the INO's annual conference, Ms Harney said it was the responsibility of hospitals to manage their budgets. They had collectively overspent by €245 million at the end of July.
And she reiterated that there would be no supplementary budget to bail them out. Some €15 billion was already being spent on health. "We've got to make sure that hospitals and the HSE lives within its budget," she said.
She added that with 120,000 people working in the health service, she could not "accept that an embargo on 200 to 300 people can have the dire consequences that are being predicted in some places".
She added: "And I would say to management at hospital level or at community service level, it's imperative that patient care is not affected."
When it was put to her that nurses at the conference had insisted the cuts were impacting on patients, she said: "Well I don't accept that. Remember we're going to take 2.9 million nursing hours away between now and next June as we reduce the working week of nurses from 39 to 37.5 hours . . . that's going to be a major challenge. What's happened during this month is nothing in comparison to that."
Earlier in Cork, Ms Harney said she didn't accept that the decision to let staff go in Sligo would lead to delays in treatment of cancer or coronary care patients there. She added that she had total confidence in Prof Drumm's capacity to manage the HSE budget.
Prof Drumm himself told reporters at the opening of the new Cork maternity hospital that it was up to hospital managements throughout the country to manage their budgets.
Meanwhile, in her address to the INO conference, the union's president, Madeline Spiers, said recent "draconian cuts" made by the HSE in order to balance its books were having a detrimental effect on patient care. "It is a bit Alice in Wonderland to hear their spokesman say that the cuts will not affect patient care," she said.
She added that the HSE had spent €3.5 million last year hiring hotel rooms for meetings and these expenses could be cut without affecting patient care. "But laying off 30 nurses [ as in Sligo] to save money has to be at the cost of lives and health," she said.
Furthermore, she said the INO would still be keeping a close eye on events to ensure the pledges given to resolve their industrial dispute earlier this year were fulfilled.
Ms Harney confirmed a commission was being established to see how nurses' working hours could be reduced to 35 hours a week. It will begin its work in November and will report within six months. It will be chaired by Judge Maureen Harding Clark and will include among its members experts from the UK and Australia, as well as the manager of a Dublin hospital and a number of Irish nurses.
The Minister also said she had no difficulty with patients being accommodated in hotels if it was appropriate for the patients concerned.