Hospitals and health services across the State must examine their expenditure and cut out waste during the economic slowdown, Minister for Health Mary Harney said this afternoon.
Ms Harney said every institution in the country must “to go through their activities, each area, and to see what can be reduced". She was speaking after news yesterday that Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children may cut up to 120 temporary and agency staff in an effort to reduce costs.
Ms Harney said she believed “the service-level agreement between the HSE and Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin is sufficient to meet the requirements of those sick children over the course of 2008."
“Remember we’re not in a situation where the budget is unlimited. Times are more difficult, the economic circumstances are such that there isn’t as much money for health that some people would wish, including the Minister for Health and the Government,” she told RTÉ radio news.
“We all have to live within very tight budgets, we’re all doing that, and the onus is on Our Lady’s Hospital as it is on every other hospital in the country. The experience of Our Lady’s Hospital is no different than the experience in the other hospitals and community settings around the country.
“We all have to cut our cloth according to our measure and in particular we have to put out a lot of administration and management, or unnecessary expenditure and put all the services in to providing the care for the sick children of the country.
“I believe there is scope at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, as there is in every other institution in the country to go through their activities, each area, and to see what can be reduced, whether it is travel to conferences, whether it’s the administration side it’s on the management side.
“I’m not just talking about Our Lady’s Hospital here I’m talking about hospitals in general and health services in particular.”
Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, has told staff in a circular that there will have to be "significant reductions in agency and temporary staff numbers".
It points out that this year the hospital has been given €14 million less than what it is projected to need by the Health Service Executive and has been ordered to make savings of €7 million.
The hospital also says that as a result of growing activity levels its staffing and expenditure have increased.
