THE HEALTH Service Executive is to pay expenses which had been at the centre of a major controversy with the Government over recent days.
Following a meeting between Minister for Health James Reilly and the chief executive of the HSE Cathal Magee yesterday, the Department of Health said staff expenses for travel and subsistence, which were incurred in October and November, would be paid “when they fall due”.
Earlier this week the HSE had announced plans to defer payment of the expenses until January at the earliest in a bid to save €15 million. The HSE said in a statement: “Following a meeting with the Minister and the Department of Health today, the HSE is satisfied that an alternative solution to the cash management position for 2011 is being developed.”
A spokesman for Dr Reilly last night refused to answer questions on the “alternative solution” which the Health Service Executive had said was to replace the savings to be generated under the planned delay in payment of the expenses.
The spokesman maintained that the matter related to the current budgetary process.
It is understood that the process under discussion involved the Department of Health providing some supplementary funding for the HSE. It has already agreed to provide additional funding of €58 million this year as well as allowing some unspecified savings from the health budget to be used to defray the HSE’s potential €300 million deficit for the year.
In addition to the deferring of the travel and subsistence expenses, the HSE board in October had also considered other possible measures for reducing its deficit.
These proposals included delaying payments to suppliers, GPs, pharmacists and private nursing homes under the Fair Deal scheme.
HSE sources said last night that while the “ alternative solution” to its cash management position for 2011 was being developed with the Department of Health, “action on other measures agreed at the HSE board meeting in October 2011 will be reviewed”.
Sources said that final decisions on these issues would be made in the coming days.
The decision by the Health Service Executive to pay the expenses was welcomed last night by the trade union Impact.
Impact national secretary Louise O’Donnell said the earlier move by the HSE had met universal disapproval.
“Health staff are working hard to cut costs and maintain services, but they can’t be expected to meet the costs of running vital community health services out of their own pockets,” she said
The plan by the Health Service Executive to defer payment of expenses for staff had been strongly criticised both by Dr Reilly and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin.
In its statement yesterday, the Department of Health said: “At today’s meeting, Dr Reilly reiterated that he does not regard it as appropriate to implement savings measures that would simply involve the withholding of the travel and subsistence payments that are owed to the relevant members of staff.
“In the context of the difficult financial conditions that currently apply, while all options are being examined, the travel and subsistence payments will be made when they fall due.”