€23 million in additional funding is great news for hospitals

Galway and Roscommon hospitals received a cash injection of €23 million which is a rise in its budget allocation of seven per cent in a radical shake-up of funding from the Health Service Executive (HSE) this week.

The financial boost comes on the back of figures released last month which show an increase in the numbers of patients treated and a cut in waiting times across the group despite staff and budget cuts.

Last year the HSE overspent its budget across the four hospitals – University Hospital Galway (UHG), Merlin Park, Portiuncula and Roscommon – by €30 million.

The funding allocations have been criticised nationally where many centres in constituencies of Government ministers are receiving major hikes, including Mayo General in Castlebar, the home of Taoiseach Enda Kenny, which is being awarded a ten per cent increase.

Limerick Regional, the home of Finance Minister Michael Noonan, is benefiting from eleven per cent more in funding, with Beaumont in Dublin – close to Ministers Richard Bruton and James Reilly’s heartlands – is also seeing a rise of over eight per cent.

Among those to suffer funding cuts are St James's Hospital, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, the Rotunda and Temple Street Hospital.

Chairperson of the HSE Regional Forum West, Councillor Padraig Conneely, said the increased allocation was a direct result of turning things around over the last year.

“I always said to Health Minister James Reilly that Galway was operating with one hand tied behind its back. He was always blunt with me and said ‘show me what they’re doing, let them prove they’re making progress and I’ll get them the money,” stated the Fine Gael representative.

“In fairness to the hospital group CEO Bill Maher he has changed work practises since his appointment, there is now a better work management at the hospitals, he has made great strides particularly in UHG on the inpatients’ waiting list, the emergency department.

“He is now starting on the outpatients’ list – that’s already been cut by 5,000. By year end he says he should be able to clear that and it stands at 40,000.”

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.