North Eastern Health Board to cut 83 jobs

The North Eastern Health Board will not fill 83 jobs this year in an effort to deal with escalating cost over-runs.

The announcement was made following the board's monthly meeting yesterday. The board had been instructed by the Department of Health and Children not to fill 60 jobs as part of a national strategy to cut 800 jobs this year in an effort to save €10 million.

Expenditure by the health board is now running at €9.29 million or 4.3 per cent above its budget, which amounts to just over €450 million for 2002.

A spokeswoman for the board said 83, rather than 60, posts were not being filled in an effort to address the board's deficit.

The posts not being filled are 12 community services posts, nine regional services posts, 21 governance and planning staff, one public health post and 40 other central and other services posts.

The increasing population in the region, which the health board noted had risen 12.7 since 1997 was one of the causes of severe cost pressures, according to the board.

A substantial increase in acute hospital activity over the last two years also contributed to a substantial over-expenditure of in non-pay areas.

In a separate development, proposals aimed at restoring significant level of acute services at Monaghan General have been sent to the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, the College of Surgeons and the Irish Medical Council for consideration.

The plan, outlined at a meeting between the board and consultants on September 18th, suggested the hospital would provide elective surgery on a five-day basis. Emergency cases and major elective operations would be dealt with at Cavan Hospital.

However, doctors rejected the proposal that could have seen full medical services and about 70 per cent of normal surgery restored at Monaghan Hospital.

The hospital has been off-call for emergencies since July and surgery has been disrupted because the hospital does not meet the requirements for training anaesthetists. As a result, the hospital cannot recruit non-EU trainee anaesthetists and emergency cases have had to be sent to Cavan General Hospital.