The cost-cutting measures at Tallaght Hospital, including job losses, will not now be known for two weeks. At the request of the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, the presentation of the hospital's 1999 service plan, which was due today, has been extended.
The plan, which details the activity to be carried out at the hospital for the year according to the budget available, was due to be presented to the board on Wednesday night.
Once hospitals receive their budget allocation from the Department of Health, they are legally obliged to draw up a plan outlining how the money will be spent. However, Mr Cowen wants the input of the three-person team, known as the troika, which he appointed this week, into the service plan.
The team, known as the troika, were appointed following the publication of the Deloitte & Touche report into the management of the hospital. However union sources at the hospital say it was as a result of their influence with the Department of Health that the deadline was extended.
Apparently when they met management on Monday to discuss the plan, there were no figures forthcoming or details on proposed job losses. Following the five-hour meeting, the unions are believed to have agreed on a joint-partnership approach, and that a task force on staffing, set up before the hospital opened, would be reactivated.
They also sought an independent audit verifying any figures produced in the plan. A proposal to have two staff members as observers on the board was discussed. The board would agree to this only for the duration of discussions of the plan, which was not satisfactory to the unions. They are due to have a meeting with hospital chief executive Dr David McCutcheon on Monday morning.
At the Dail Committee of Public Accounts yesterday, the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr Jerry O'Dwyer, said the plan for the hospital would be submitted on February 12th "at the outside".
He said it was not possible to say how many jobs would be lost, but the Department was hoping the hospital board and the troika group would come up with solutions to the problem that would be "as positive and imaginative as possible".
The Department of Health was dealing as favourably as it could with Tallaght Hospital "while at the same time being fair to other people". The hospital had funding which should be adequate to maintain approved services, but there was no provision for the further development of services. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is to visit the hospital today.