Review ordered of Tallaght Hospital budget

The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, has ordered a review of the budgetary provisions at the new Tallaght Hospital in Co Dublin.

The review, by consultants Deloitte & Touche, follows the hospital's financial problems and the significant budget overrun after its first full month in operation, in July.

Mr Cowen said the review "will also examine the arrangements within the organisation for service planning and associated staffing and financial budgets."

He rejected the accusation by Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, that the financial allowance the Minister made for the hospital fell short by about £20 million.

Mr Cowen said during questions on health that he was "extremely concerned at the degree of the projected deficit for 1998 which has been presented and the reasons given for the overrun."

He said the review would be carried out in the context of the merger of the three Dublin hospitals and the move to Tallaght. "The review will also look at the process, systems and practices for reporting and control. It is expected that the review will be completed within three weeks."

He had instituted the review because "it is vital that the hospital now establishes itself on a proper footing at Tallaght." The Minister said he was trying to work with the hospital's board of management in addressing its current difficulties, and "I acknowledge the positive attitude taken by the board, which is in full agreement with the review."

Mr Shatter also called on the Minister to introduce legislation to require all tobacco manufacturers to put on cigarette packages that their product was addictive, a drug and a toxic substance.

Mr Cowen said that if they were to put the full extent of the effect of cigarettes on packets, "we would need very big packets." The Minister added, however, that some countries did require cigarette manufacturers to state the addictive nature of the product.

An advisory group was looking at smoking and health policy, including warnings on tobacco-product packaging. "When the group reports to me I hope to be in a position to announce a number of initiatives in this area."

Earlier, Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall, voiced concern about the shortage of nursing staff throughout the health services and pointed out that the Irish Medical Organisation said there were 1,000 unfilled vacancies in the Dublin area alone.

She said that many of the 750 beds the Minister forced hospitals to close in August could not be reopened because of the difficulty in recruiting nursing staff.

Mr Cowen said he was aware of the difficulty in recruiting nursing staff for acute hospitals, care of the elderly services, and psychiatric and mental handicap services.

The shortage, however, was not evenly distributed through the State, he said, and it was not unique to Ireland. The US, Britain and most EU countries were also experiencing shortages.

The Minister gave the figures for the number of nurses currently employed in the public health service but did not have the statistics for the number of unfilled nursing vacancies.

There were now 27,426 nurses employed in the public health service and paid by the Department of Health. This was an increase of 11 per cent since 1990, the Minister added. He was awaiting the report of the task group set up by the Health Service Employers' Agency on nursing shortages.