HSE says it will not be possible to meet all growing demands placed on services

The head of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, has said it will not be possible this year to meet some service priorities.

Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children last night, he said there were some service developments that the HSE would have liked to have introduced this year but which could not be afforded.

He said these included revamping the dental treatment service, new perinatal pathology services, the further roll- out of the BreastCheck programme and about €1.5 million in new health and wellbeing initiatives.

Separately, Minister for Health James Reilly told the committee that if it transpired that controversial plans to generate €108 million in unspecified pay-related savings – a key element in the HSE's overall budgetary strategy for the year – were not realised, the Government would have to revisit the issue.

Dr Reilly said there was no question of health service staff being asked to take any additional pay reductions other than those set out in the Haddington Road agreement.

Mr O’Brien said that the HSE would seek to maximise the flexibilities provided for under the Haddington Road deal and see if these could be leveraged to generate further reductions in operation costs.

The committee was told that the €108 million target would be the subject of a new process, mainly involving managers making the best use of the five million additional working hours provided for under the Haddington Road deal.

Mr O’Brien said that the outcome of this process would determine whether all of the €108 million savings target – or, conceivably, none of it – would be realised.

Implications
Mr O'Brien said if the €108 million target was not achievable after this process, other departments would examine the implications.

Dr Reilly said: “The amount of €108 million is an integral part of the overall savings target for the health sector. The €108 million pay-related savings target will be subject to a separate process and will, of necessity, remain unspecified and be held centrally by HSE management until a procedure is in place for setting out how these savings are to be achieved.

"These measures are to be determined with the assistance and support of the Department of An Taoiseach and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. "

Mr O’Brien said if the €108 million target was not achievable this would not translate into service cuts.

He confirmed that he had changed the opening comments in the original draft of the HSE’s service plan for 2014 but denied this had been as a result of political pressure.

He said before the Government had scaled back original medical card probity savings targets from €133 million to €23 million, he believed that the level of risk attached to the service plan at that stage meant there was a strong danger that the HSE would face a mid-year financial crisis that would have resulted in cuts to the level or amount of care.

Mr O'Brien said that after the Government decided to scale back the medical card probity savings and to provide additional funding from the Department of Social Protection, he had deleted comments in the draft about threats to critical service priorities.