HSE exceeded January and February budget by €60 million

The Health Service Executive (HSE) exceeded its budget by almost €60 million in January and February of this year.

The figures, contained in the HSE’s monthly performance report for February, says it recorded a net spend of €2.030 billion for the first two months of the year, against a budget of €1.971 billion, which equates to a total deficit of €58.8 million.

Of this, €40.4 million was spent on core services, primarily within acute hospitals and social care. The remaining €18.4 million related to the primary care reimbursement service, local schemes, State claims and pensions.

The report, which is self-assessed by the HSE, says it had “not been possible” to deliver the necessary cost reductions in January and February as set out in the national service plan for 2015.

“The sustained exceptional level of delayed discharges, the cost pressures these are causing and the level of management time and capacity taken up with dealing with this issue within our acute and social care services is beyond the level anticipated in the service plan,” the report says.

The report says that the €40.4 million deficit in core services in the acute hospital and social care services is “a cause for concern” and efforts are being made both to address the delayed discharge issue and also to “intensify efforts” to implement the necessary cost reduction measures for the rest of the year.

Hospital overcrowding

The report also says that overcrowding in hospitals has eased since January, but was at a higher level than at the same time last year, with patients continuing to experience “lengthy delays” in emergency departments.

These delays lasted more than 24 hours for 4.9 per cent of patients, while 65.5 per cent were either admitted or discharged within six hours and 79.3 per cent within nine hours.

The highest number of patients recorded on trolleys during February peaked at 446 on February 18th.

In relation to inpatient or day case procedures, 71.6 per cent of adult patients had to wait “less than eight months”, while 1.9 per cent, or 1,105 adult patients, had to wait for more than 18 months.

About 0.4 per cent, or 231 adult patients, had to wait in excess of two years for treatment in this case.

The report also says that 114 people did not have their colonoscopy procedure within four weeks, despite the four week target for an “urgent” colonoscopy and a “zero tolerance” policy to breaches of this policy.

As of March 23rd, 107 of these patients had had their procedure, while the remaining seven were treated by April 14th.

In relation to cancer treatment, 64.8 per cent of patients accessed the prostate rapid access service within 20 working days, which was almost a third short of the 90 per cent target.