A hospital and a cancer-care unit are among the bodies still in the dark over HSE plans, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
The first national service plan from the new Health Service Executive was expected to set out in detail what the HSE hoped to achieve in 2005 and how it would spend its €11 billion budget across the regions.
But when it was published yesterday it was something of a disappointment.
It contained little if anything that was new, outlining once more how funding announced in the Estimates would be spent this year on improving services in key areas such as A&E, mental health and the disability sector.
The plan is long on general points, such as the need to do something about the leading causes of death in Ireland, namely heart disease and cancer, but is short on specifics such as how much money will go to individual hospitals and even how money announced in the Estimates will be divided up.
It says for example that it has not yet been decided how the extra €14.5 million in funding for mental health services this year will be spent.
While the HSE is a new organisation, still without a chief executive and trying to co-ordinate a massive health service reform programme, it was expected that by the beginning of the second quarter of the year it would have been able to provide a detailed breakdown of planned service developments in each region.
It means the people of Wexford will have to wait longer to find out if their local hospital, Wexford General, will get funding for another 19 beds this year. And a cancer-care support group in Galway will also have to wait to see if money will be provided to open respite beds for terminally ill patients.
Up to this they have been told these issues will be considered in the context of the national service plan for the year. The plan is now published but still doesn't contain the information they are waiting for.
The plan states that actions begun in 2004 will continue to be implemented in 2005. "Specific details are reflected within the individual business plans that support this national service plan," it says.
Asked about these individual business plans yesterday, a HSE spokeswoman said they were being prepared. It is still not clear when they will be available.
It is also of concern that many services will continue to have to be provided at last year's levels, despite increased demands on them.
Much of the talk about the report, however, has focused on its waiting list figures and its confirmation that 600 jobs will have to go to comply with a set employment ceiling for the health sector.
The plan states that there are 12,130 adults on inpatient waiting lists but only a few months ago the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which has taken over the management of waiting lists, said it could not publish waiting list figures as no accurate figures were available.
While concern has been expressed in some quarters about 600 jobs going, the HSE says "front-line services" will not be affected. Given that many of the administrative functions of the former health boards have been centralised under the HSE, it should be relatively easy to achieve the number of job losses sought voluntarily.