HOSPITAL CONSULTANTS have argued that the HSE should realign its budget to ensure greater priority is given to frontline services.
In a pre-budget submission released yesterday, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said that frontline acute hospital and mental health services could not sustain further cuts.
It said vacant consultant and non-consultant hospital doctor positions around the State, as well as other critical frontline posts, should be filled without delay and that the executive’s new clinical care programmes needed to be properly resourced to achieve their full potential.
The association also argued that closed beds and theatres should be reopened. Its president Dr Margo Wrigley said that it was “a false economy” to delay patient treatments.
“A delayed treatment has an incalculable cost in terms of a patient’s quality of life. In addition, even with the resource limitations we have, it is a false economy to delay patient treatments.
“Delays increase the length of hospital stays. Patients deteriorate while awaiting care. This increases the cost of treatment, continuing care and time out of work.
“It would be far more cost effective to treat patients without the current long delays if sufficient funds were provided for frontline acute hospital care.”
The association maintained that frontline services were increasingly under-staffed. It also said the number of eligible doctors applying for consultant positions in Irish hospitals was falling.
Meanwhile, the association refused to comment on the move by the HSE to effectively remove private practice rights from some hospital consultants for allegedly treating too many private patients.