The budget for Galway University Hospital has been slashed by €23,355,000 this year as the hospital struggles to maintain the same level of service but with substantially less funding.
According to figures released this week GUH has been allocated €242,723,000 for 2011, down from €266,078,000 last year.
These figures were released during a week when there were 32 patients on trolleys awaiting admission to GUH yesterday (Wednesday ), according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation Trolley Watch.
Savings will be made through measures such as the continuation of the ban on recruitment, more aggressive procurement measures, a reduction in payments to agency staff, a renegotiation of rents and leases, and increased income is expected to be derived from private and semi-private patients.
Already 421 staff have left the service in the west due to the voluntary early retirement scheme which was rolled out late last year and the challenge for hospital managers is how to maintain services when frontline workers are moving out of the system, a meeting of the HSE West forum was told on Tuesday.
Unions have already expressed outrage at the decision of the HSE to cut the pay of agency staff by up to 70 per cent. At present, agency staff are paid on the 10th point of the nurses’ pay scale, regardless of their experience.
In future, those with less than two years’ experience will be paid at the bottom of the new lower scale, while others will be paid at the fifth point on the scale.
There will also be reductions in premium payments.
These measures are expected to save the service up to €1 million in the west area alone.
While funding has been reduced, the same level of service will have to be maintained according to John Hennessy, regional director of operations, HSE West.
Inpatient discharges at the Galway hospital stood at 37,920 last year, 3,599 above target, while this year the target stands at 37,162.
Day case attendees at the hospital last year also exceeded the target of 63,060 and ran to 63,708, while the 2011 target in this area has been set at 65,624.
The projected number of emergency presentations at GUH last year was expected to reach 66,972, 4,229 under the target set out at the start of the year. This year’s target is 66,995, while emergency admissions are expected to exceed the target of 25,802 by 2,755 patients. This year the target has been increased to 28,230.
In the outpatient department 205,700 patients are expected to attend GUH in 2011, just 4,218 fewer than the actual number for 2010.
For 2011 one of the areas of focus for the HSE in the west is improving hospital performance, specifically targeting improvements in access to outpatient services, reduction in average length of stay, and increased day cases.
