EXTENSIVE CUTS in home help services and acute hospital bed numbers are included in a revised action plan for this year approved by the board of the Health Service Executive yesterday.
The measures approved will save a further €72 million and if a move by Minister for Health Mary Harney to raise a further €275 million for the HSE in the context of next week’s emergency budget is unsuccessful, the board may have to revise its 2009 service plan again in coming weeks.
The organisation is facing a potential deficit of about €1 billion this year. Part of this is caused by rising unemployment figures which have resulted in reduced income from the health levy. It also has to fund thousands of extra medical cards for those losing their jobs.
In a statement, the HSE said the revised service plan would be sent to Ms Harney for her endorsement. “Until such time as the Minister has received and considered this proposed amendment, it would be inappropriate to comment on the details,” it said.
Meanwhile yesterday’s board meeting also discussed the ongoing row between the HSE board and HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm over the filling of a senior post, that of national director of operations, within the organisation.
The HSE said: “The board of the HSE today reached a decision in relation to the three appointments of national director of quality and clinical care, national director of operations, and national director of planning and performance. This decision will be relayed to the Public Appointments Service which will in turn inform the candidates. Until this process is complete, it would be inappropriate to comment any further”. It is understood a decision was taken to conduct the recruitment process all over again.
In a separate development yesterday, Ms Harney confirmed a range of allowances due to be paid to hospital consultants who signed up to new contracts are being re-examined with a view to cutting costs. She said she had asked the HSE and Prof Drumm “to examine some of these issues”.
Asked if the payments might be cut back in the same way as efforts are being made to curtail allowances to junior doctors, she said: “I’m not ruling anything out as far as that is concerned or anything in at this point. I’ve asked Prof Drumm and the HSE to examine some of these issues”.
She added that the issue of the on-call payments and other practices “have to be examined”.
As part of the agreement on a new consultants’ contract last year, consultants were to be paid an annual allowance of €6,000 for being available to do on call and up to €30,000 a year for going on call in emergencies. These allowances were to be paid on top of basic salary scales ranging from €175,000 to €240,000.
Ms Harney stressed though that the new contracts, which facilitate a new way of working for consultants which she says is fundamental to changing how hospitals operate, will be implemented.
While a majority of consultants signed up to the new contracts, none to date have received the higher salaries. The first half of their pay increase was due in June 2008 and the remainder in June this year. Ms Harney said the pay increases due in June would not now be paid.