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NEW FIGURES RELEASED by the HSE show that its deficit is now €399 million – and this is the first time it has seen a reduction in its deficit.
The financial report for the HSE for September also shows a spend year to date of €9,453 million). The HSE said that there are indications that the cost containment measures in place are reducing spend rates. Key improvements include a €5m reduction in the deficit compared with the previous month.
There was also a reduction in the first nine months of 2012 of the number of people on trolleys, which went down by 23.6 per cent, or 16,659 people, compared to last year. It said that 70 per cent of hospitals fully achieved the target of having nobody waiting for more than nine months for treatment, and that 99.7 per cent of people whose referrals for breast cancer were triaged as urgent were seen within two weeks against a target of 95 per cent.
MRSA rates have declined from 0.11 per 1000 bed days in 2008 to 0.063 in the first half of 2012 which is significant, said the HSE.
Service issues
The HSE said that there were 7,091 more people admitted as emergencies in its acute hospitals than in 2011, while there were 10,260 more inpatients treated than in the same period in 2011, which is 7.6 per cent above target.
It also said that the amount of personal assistant/home support hours that have been used by people with a physical and/or sensory disability is 29.6 per cent in excess of the target of 1.23m hours. The number of people who attend nationally at prostate cancer rapid access clinics for the third quarter within 20 working days was 40.6 per cent – the national target is 90 per cent of patients.
“Real crisis”
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on health, Billy Kelleher, said that he expects Minister Reilly “will move to shore-up his budget failings by moving unspent money from his Department’s capital allocation to current spending”.
Also, there is already €125m committed from private health insurers’ to be factored in. This will help the Ministers’ budget look a little less disastrous but it does nothing for the elderly and vulnerable in need of home help hours and community services that will continue to be cut into next year to pay for the failure of Minister Reilly to manage his budget and department properly.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said it believes the figures fail to portray the real crisis facing the Irish public health service.
It said that the deficit of €399 million “confirms that… the original budget, for 2012, was wholly inadequate”.
INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said:
These figures only confirm, yet again, the heroic efforts of nurses, midwives and other health service staff to maintain a public health service which meets the needs of sick people. The continued criticism of the health service, for this budgetary overrun is totally unfair, misguided and unwarranted.
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How much of that 400 million is on sick pay? How much on heating during the summer? 11% out sick on bank holiday Monday in August! To many useless mangers. At least the consultants save lives.
Non medical staff tend to be off work on bank holidays and medical staff have the lowest number of sick days so where are you getting your info from? Making it up?
Paying consultants €100,000 plus for their work in our public hospital yet they are also running full private clinics .. The system is creating long waiting lists as these consultants are paid by the HSE regardless of the actual work they do and then they get paid on their private clinics for all the patience that get referred on due to insane waiting times .. It is a crazy system
well said Claire. And as always, they will increase admission fees to claw back money. Even people with private healthcare are been taking for idiots with massive hikes to pay them. Tiny heathcare system yet they are the highest paid in the world.
Not very insightful Clare, the majority of consultants want to treat more public patients but are stopped from doing so by hospital management as more cases cost more money.
The HSE can more money…re-use them crutches they give out in A&E and dont insist on giving me a new set everytime I’m admitted with a broken ankle after a match…i have 3 sets at home from the last times…sure I can use them….I want to do my bit for EIRE :)
The HSE can save* more money….
My two cents, hows about you bring the crutches back to the hospital? They cant be reused like you suggested if people like you keep a stash of them at home.
Hi Tommy…they wont take them back…insurance reasons i was told…some waste of public cash..nothing wrong with the ones they gave me before..but they insist i take a fresh pair..
So hows about you refuse to take them and tell the doc you have 3 perfectly good pairs of crutches at home. Head home from the hospital in a taxi or via a lift and then use what you already have? Problem solved.
@ tommy c,they won’t take them back
Scrap the croke park agreement and sack half the admin staff, cut consultants hours and everyones pay
Sure we’ll work for free Stephen! We are worthless people and so are our 5 year honours degree medical qualifications obviously.
Medicine should be a vocation, not about the money, if you wanted money you should have become a banker
Ah right so if we decide that its a vocation, should I get a free house, car, clothes, bills paid etc or should I just live in sh1t?
usual herd mentality of slashing doctors pay. we already work long unpaid hours, because unlike you comfortable 9 to 5 guys, we actually have to make sure things are okay before we go home. not just dump it at a corner when the clock reaches 4pm, pretend to be busy till 5,then go out for pints.
It’s the management, that have caused this and not frontline or medical staff. The ordinary people will suffer again, no accountability and golden handshakes for the bad management in Ireland!
During the Celtic Tiger was our health service any better???
good point
HSE focus isn’t caring for patients it’s a feeding frenzy with most of the budget gobbled up in salaries and self interest.
Cuts so bad now that u have to wait hours in A&E Cuh for a bed, lying on a trolley in a corridor … The staff can’t even offer u a slice of toast as no bread in kitchen!!!!! Wtf! Joke and utter disgrace.
Declan
How would you feel if such an outrageous accusation was made about you as you went about your daily and lawful work . This isn’t the first time that this nameless and faceless digital warrior has vented his imaginary spleen against innocent individuals on these pages be they politicians bankers or city employees. This guy somehow gets brave but stupid over his keyboard and thinks he’s immune from any prosecution when he vents his bile in any direction his digestive tract takes him. I am so sure I want to see this issue prosecuted I have taken substantial action on the matter already this evening.
These data provide a very objective and fair means of assessing the Outputs provided by the Health Service in the current year and any fair observer would have to say that this is a very satisfactory report.
When seen in the context of Ireland having the most expensive Public Hospitals in the Developed World the reality of vested interests fighting for every dime has nothing to do with patients and everything to do with employment numbers and high salaries plus allowances.
Watch the explosive reaction to these truths and let us actually offer our congratulations on a job reasonably well done by the HSE in the circumstance of reduced resources.
*Hears ringing of realisation*
The government should not be involved in healthcare anywhere near as much as it is.
I could never understand how forcing a hospital to run on a specific budget could ever work. They have to treat an unknown number of patients with unknown illnesses or conditions over the course of a year without going over their budget. I’d love to know how much the individual hospitals actually bring in from revenue versus their budget. Paying the hospitals for the patients they treat rather than setting them a budget seems like an obvious route to investigate, or an I naive
Was in the A&E department of Cork University Hospital only last night. Everyone was extremely professional and kind, from the paramedics to the nurses and doctors. At 10pm we were told there was zero chance of getting a bed for the night as there were people still on trolleys waiting for beds from the previous night. I can’t praise the staff enough, the problem is there’s not enough of them rostered/budgeted to handle the workload.
While the comment maybe a bit wild. Talking solicitors libel etc is a bit wild west too. He is entitled to his opinion and hasn’t named names . Anyone who reads the comment will know that isn’t the truth in what he has said. Everyone a bit of cop on is required.
Frank
Somewhere in Dublin City Council there is an official or manager or supervisor who has responsibility for the work being carried out on a footpath in Rinsend and you have identified him or her as being involved in kickbacks. Do ye not see that your tongue or your keyboard can be downright nasty and also both slanderous and libelous.
My advice to all who read this and have any connection with DCC is to bring this contribution from myself to the attention of that individual. Then I would encourage that person to seek out a good solicitor on a pro bono basis who will instruct counsel and take an action against you for monumental libel. The Courts will easily grant discovery from your Internet provider and expose you as the cowardly author of this despicable accusation.
Good luck with that Frank as I have a dozen of those contacts myself.
is anyone auditing the work performed by the admin staff? they seem to have a real cozy 9 to 4 job.lot of redundancies ,jobs are being creates for old marys and paddys they just can’t fire.they get better benefits than frontline staff, better pay. and never seem to get any flak
comment was reply to Green Monkey boom period
don’t know why it’s here
B
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