The HSE West has been told it must deliver the same standard of efficiencies and care as it did last year, but by spending €30 million less. No mean feat one would say, but that has been the task given to the health authority in the west.
To make matters worse the HSE West is delivering health care to an ageing and increasing population which has reached the one million mark for the first time since the Great Famine.
In-patient numbers must be reduced by increasing the number of patients who are treated as day-care patients or in out-patients. Patients presenting for elective surgeries will be discharged on the same day or they won’t spend longer in hospital than necessary, a meeting of the HSE West Regional Health Forum was told on Tuesday, with the emphasis turning to community based care in an effort to reduce the numbers admitted to acute hospitals. This is good news for people living in the Westport area where there are plans to build a community care facility. In Mayo this year there will be four primary care teams in operation: in Erris, Achill, Crossmolina, and Claremorris with four more operational by the end of the year: Ballinrobe, Kiltimagh, and two in Ballina.
While the HSE launched its service plan 2009, Dr Sean Conroy, director, Regional Health Office, HSE West, has warned that more cuts are to follow. He said the challenge ahead was “very significant” and staff were being asked to “do more less”. He said demand for services was “insatiable”, and with unemployment rising it would be difficult to predict what the level of demand for medical cards will be.
In order to work within the budget human resources would have to be maximised, Francis Rogers, assistant national director of human resources in the HSE West, explained. This will involve the reassignment of staff, the utilisation of skill-mix, review of travel/subsistence costs and annual leave planning, employees will be encouraged to take up family friendly policies (term time, career breaks, and unpaid leave ). There will be restrictions on locum cover, the use of agency staff, replacements, overtime, and premium pay. Voluntary early retirement will be encouraged.
The HSE is looking for a three per cent reduction in management and administration staff.
The western hospital group which comprises Mayo, Galway, Donegal, Sligo, and Roscommon, has been allocated a budget of €658 million, almost €30 million less than last year’s allocation.
The good news in all of this is the plans for an oncology unit at Mayo General Hospital, which will cost €8 million, and the community care centre in Westport.
Mayo HSE representative Eddie Staunton said the service plan needed wider debate. He said the cutbacks were “frightening” and added that the health service was bad enough but asked what would happen when the cut backs were implemented.
Cllr Austin Francis O’Malley said the service was reverting to the 1930s. “The Government of today should be ashamed of themselves. I called two or three years ago for Mary Harney to resign and she should have resigned,” he said. “Undertakers are going to have a field day,” added Cllr O’Malley.
The pending budget cuts and cutbacks will be discussed by HSE representatives at local hospital meetings and PCCC meetings.
Dr Conroy said it was imperative the executive get the final figures from the HSE otherwise they will only have 10 months to effect the necessary changes. “It’s grim but we don’t know the full extent,” he admitted.
