Health budget increased for first time in seven years

The Budget allocation for health is to increase for the first time in seven years, with a €305 million rise in Exchequer support next year.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said that while he wasn't "awash with cash" the extra money made the funding situation of the health service "more manageable".

The extra money will help fund the extension of the Breastcheck screening programme to women aged 65-69 years as well as providing more for capital funding of major health projects. It will also allow more investment in suicide prevention and tackling eating disorders.

The extra capital funding - up 18 per cent on the existing budget in 2016 - will be used to build more primary care centres, community nursing units and cancer facilities. More money will be spent on a much-needed investment in IT systems in the health service.

Mr Varadkar also announced a measure to allow agency staff to be exempted from public service workforce restrictions which have led to staff shortages and excess costs within the health service. The move will effectively sidestep the recruitment embargo by giving hospitals a cash target for staff spending rather than a numerical target for the number of staff employed.

Mr Varadkar said the HSE was currently heading for an overrun “north of €500 million” this year and said he didn’t have a “blank cheque” from Government for overspending.

Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin announced in his Budget speech that an additional €25 million is being provided to tackle the problem of delayed discharges from hospitals. The number of patients waiting to leave hospital but who have not been discharged has soared in recent months, largely because of a lack of step-down facilities to take them. Currently, almost 700 patients are classified as delayed discharges, costing the health service up to €800 a night.

Funding for the health service was a key priority for Government, Mr Howlin said, with €13.1 billion in funding allocated for 2015. Some €2.1 billion of this will be spent on older people and disability service, and €2.3 billion on prescription drugs.

Mr Howlin said 2.1 million people will have a medical card or GP visit card next year; this includes the universal entitlement for under-sixes and over-70s being introduced next year. Additional staff are being recruited for mental health services, he added.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan announced the price of cigarettes was being increased by 40c per packet of 20, while there would be no change in the taxes on alcohol. There was no sign of the tax on sugary drinks or junk food sought by some health advocates.

Apart from a welcome for the cigarette price increase, there was a cool reaction from the health sector to Mr Varadkar’s first budget as Minister for Health. The Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation both said the allocation was not enough to alleviate the problems of the health service.

“There had been some hope that this budget would see a step change in the Government’s approach to funding health but it has not come to pass. Instead we will be forced to continue with insufficient resources doing less with less and it is the patients who will lose out and suffer,” said IMO president Trevor Duffy.