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HOSPITAL BUDGETS WILL be cut by up to 4.4 per cent and 555 nursing home beds closed this year, the Health Service Executive has revealed.
In its National Service Plan for 2012, the HSE outlined how it proposed to trim €750 million from its annual budget.
The plan, published this morning, details how a budget of €13.3 billion will be spent across Ireland’s health and social care services.
The body said that the budget cuts to hospital funding will actually require them to decrease their expenditure by about 7.8 per cent. This will equate to a 6 per cent reduction in service activity.
“The scale of the financial challenge facing the HSE means that there will be an inevitable and unavoidable reduction in services but it will not be a ‘straight line reduction’,” said the Department of Health in a statement.
Disintegrating staff levels
The HSE itself said it faces a large reduction in budgets in 2012 following “several years of delivering more with less money”.
Falling staff numbers is the issue which will most directly impact frontline services, said the HSE.
About 3,200 workers are expected to leave the health service before the end of next month and use of agency staff is to be cut in half. This comes on top of year-on-year staff reductions.
Both of these factors directly impact on service delivery. However, the HSE is working to move to new models of care which will allow us to get more from our reduced budget. Notwithstanding this, it is clear that it will not be possible to deliver all services at the same levels as previous years.”
Minister Reilly called on “greater flexibilities” in work practices and rosters, as well as more redeployment.
The HSE revealed that a minimum of 555 public nursing home beds will close this year. These will mostly come about because of bed closures, and not full unit closures, it said.
On a more positive side, an additional €35m will be invested in mental health services and an extra 400 staff employed. There will also be €20 given to primary care facilities and €15 million to extend free access to GPs.
Other key features of the plan:
HSE chief executive Cathal Magee said that 2012 will be a challenging year for the services.
Minister Reilly added:
The need for radical change in our health services has been apparent since the Celtic Tiger days of excess. The new financial reality in which the health system is operating means that there is a greater need than ever before to drive that change, innovate and implement efficiencies.Continuing with the status quo was not an option in the time of plenty. Dispensing with the status quo is now in straitened times essential. This plan outlines how the system will adapt in order to minimise reductions in service levels while facing up to financial and reform challenges.”
Reilly approved this plan on Friday after asking HSE executives to redraft it, telling them to be more ambitious. He said he wanted to ensure that a cut in expenditure did not mean an equal cut in service activity.
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What is the point of this? There are equally, if not slightly more women who are able to vote but they didnt vote for women on the ballot? There are very few quality candidates as it is and the last thing we need is people voting based on a gender quota.
@Da Vid: A complete waste of time, more women have the vote than men, there are quotas for candidates, what else do they want?
@Justin Gillespie: I never so much bull.
Get out and vote and may the best person win. This is just another waste of taxpayers money, as I keep saying.
This Craic can’t last?
A sure sign they’ve run of things to talk about.
Why is it always the higher end jobs that they complain most about when it comes to gender quota?
Politicians, CEO’s and so on.
Never hear the moaning on quotas in construction, fire brigade, truck drivers and so on.
Where’s the argument or push to get more men into nursing jobs, childcare jobs etc etc.
Where are the voices of common sense to stand up against this nonsense?
@HopefulEgalitarian: What about equality in the Dail for foreigners, Muslims, traverrlers, left handed people, redheads etc etc.
@Justin Gillespie: quiet you fool, you’re only giving them ideas!
The female ministers who focused primarily on gender issues have been dropped by the electorate. They believed they knew what women want, i.e. to be more like men. If they had bothered to ask women they would have been told that they wanted houses to live in, child care for their children, teachers, health care and more Gardai to allow them feel secure in their community.
We all know that gender is fluid and a mere social construct; therefore, there is no need for this talking shop.
Keep them away from talking about legal fees, housing, waiting lists, transport infrastructure, electricity and insurance pricing.
Great stuff.
A pointless talking shop. Nothing more.
What is the point of this Citizens’ Assembly? Is that what the Dáil is? It’s an assembly made up of our citizens, who we pay to talk about and deal with many topics, including this if they want to.
Then they come along and make up this new Assembly to fob off a load of their work and make life even easier.
Gender in the LGBTQ ….. community is that not a contradiction. Piers Morgan was right. Let’s all be non binary identifying Penguins. Exercise in total B.S
So they will predominantly hear from interest groups and academics in gender studies who all have a vested interest in presenting this as one of the biggest issues facing the country in need of guess what… more funding for interest groups and academics. Total waste of time
@Gavin: yes, its interesting how these groups always conduct a survey which finds that, low & behold (insert groups mandate here) is worse than ever & our group is needed more than ever. More funding please! We have a bloated NGO sector in this country that is nothing more than an extension of the civil service.
@Gavin: Nail on head.
I for one will not vote for a female candidate in any election while there are gender quotas and I hope others who believe this interference in free democracy to be abhorrent are doing the same. I don’t care if the female in question is capable of being the best politician this country has seen in hundreds of years as even if she is there are hard working male councillors up and down the country who are being denied a chance to run for election because they were unfortunate enough to be born a man. Seems to be the message is stick to jobs where you get your hands dirty and leave the high earning clean jobs to women. Positive discrimination is discrimination against men and the sooner people start realising this the sooner you will have equality and respect between men and women.
@Dino: I take this approach to female candidates too, although I would caution it should only be applied to female candidates representing political parties; a woman standing as an independent can’t use gender quotas to unfairly advance her ambitions.
@Gordon Comstock: Good point, this wasn’t an option in our constituency in this general election but I’ll keep an eye out for future elections
A mans world? Is Bolton street still open? Not stopping girl putting down Bolton street for the CAO yet you were luck to to have a class with max 5 women in it.
What’s this going to cost…..
Like all the other comments I agree – this is complete and unadulterated rubbish
Identity politics is anti-equality
Whinging blokes up early today.
@DJ François: *Soy boy alert*
@DJ François: oh this guy is woke
@DJ François: you seem unaware you are the victim of your own statement
It’s mad how triggered some people get by the idea of 99 citizens becoming informed about gender equality.
The citizens assembly has been instrumental in the process of Ireland making changes based on facts and not emotion, and yet here come all the logical shrieking snowflakes to say that it’s a pointless endeavour and what have the citizens assembly ever done for us!
Relax lads, if equality isnt a problem, then 99 people drawn from a representative sample of the population will conclude that.
@Mick Hennessy: What makes them qualified to say whether its a problem or not? The average person will always err on perceived fairness if someone presents something as unfair to them. This is one of the reasons Trump has popularity in America, he spins a narrative that the establishment is against him and how he is being unfairly targetted. More than 50% of a representative sample in the US would likely say the establishment is against him and its not fair that doesn’t mean he should automatically be protected though. Citizens assembly is a waste of time and money, we elect official representatives to run our country, this is democracy not 100 unelected citizens that can be led by people with agendas.
have your say