A COST-CUTTING plan for the health service which could involve hospital ward closures will be put before the people in the next few weeks, Minister for Health Dr James Reilly has said.
He confirmed there could be “temporary cessation” of certain services, but stressed the closure of small hospitals was not on his agenda.
He was responding to a report in yesterday’s Irish Times which revealed a confidential submission to Health Service Executive headquarters from the HSE Dublin North East region that had proposed introducing a waiting list for services for pregnant women and newborn infants, capping access to immunisation schemes and scaling back services for sexual abuse victims as part of a draft cost-saving strategy.
Each of the executive’s four regions was ordered to devise costcutting plans after overspending by €183 million in the first four months of the year. Hospitals were €99 million over budget, with those most in trouble including Limerick regional, Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, Letterkenny General and Waterford Regional Hospitals.
Yesterday it emerged the HSE West had drawn up contingency plans to remove 24-hour emergency services from Roscommon County Hospital next month.
Local Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten said ambulance personnel had been told that under the plan the hospital’s AE would open only from 8am to 8pm Monday to Thursday and from 8am to 5pm on Friday. Outside of those hours patients would have to be taken to other hospitals in Ballinasloe or Galway. Mr Naughten said this would be irresponsible.
The plan seemed to have been drawn up, he said, in case the hospital could not recruit sufficient junior doctors to run the emergency department from July 11th, when junior doctors rotate posts as part of their training.
HSE West said it is examining options in relation to Roscommon County Hospital.
Meanwhile, Dr Reilly said there was no question of a cap on vaccinations to save money. “There can never be a question of us ever capping vaccinations for children . . . there will be no interference with vaccine programmes.”
The HSE Dublin North East document also warned if the region did not get approval for its costcutting plan that other measures might have to be considered, including closure of Monaghan and Dundalk hospitals, closure of the elective orthopaedic unit at Navan hospital and significant additional ward closures at the Mater, Beaumont and Connolly hospitals in Dublin.
Dr Reilly stressed it was up to each hospital and each service to honour agreements they signed up to in terms of the budget they were given and the service they promised to deliver. “That is their responsibility and they cannot look to the HSE or to the Government in that regard.”
Asked if small hospitals could be closed, he replied: “I can’t say never . . . what I’m saying is if you’re asking me could there be temporary cessation of certain services and wards . . . that’s a possibility . . . but in terms of closing hospitals, no – that is not on my agenda and I do not see with the current capacity issues we have how it could be on my agenda.”
He said it was his “intention to lay the plan before the people in the next few weeks”.