The cancellation of surgery at Dublin's Mater Hospital is likely to be the first of many cutbacks in the capital's hospitals, according to the Labour Party.
The party’s health spokesperson, Ms Liz McManus, said the Mater’s decision to cancel 2,000 operations this year was the "latest indication of the serious funding crisis now facing our major hospitals".
|
|
Ms Liz McManus
|
Four of the five Dublin Area Teaching Hospitals (DATHS) - the Mater, Beaumont, St Vincent's, St James's and Tallaght - recently said they were facing a budgetary deficits in 2002. Ms McManus today said these hospitals are also likely to cancel surgery and close wards because of a €30 million funding shortfall.
"All through the recent General Election campaign, the Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, denied that there was any problem and specifically denied that there would be any cutbacks," Ms McManus said.
The Fianna Fáil election manifesto promised waiting lists would be eliminated in two years but the promise was not included in the recently-published Programme for Government.
Ms McManus said: "Unless this funding crisis is addressed by Minister Martin, there will be a significant increase in hospital waiting lists which, as the recent CSO [Central Statistics Office] figures show, are already much higher than the official numbers admitted by the Department of Health."