Health chiefs back off cuts over threat to patient safety

By Darragh McDonaghHospitals in Galway received a last-minute reprieve yesterday after HSE West management conceded that cutbacks to eliminate its €65m budget deficit could not be implemented without lives being put at risk.

The regional health executive had been instructed by the central authority to axe €65m from its expenditure by the end of the financial year to achieve breakeven status.

However, a meeting of Oireachtas representatives and members of the Regional Health Forum heard yesterday that it could not implement further cuts without jeopardising patient safety.

The matter is now in the hands of the national HSE, which could choose to punish the regional health authority by deducting the massive overspend from its budget for next year.

The meeting at University Hospital Galway (UHG) was told by Dr David O’Keeffe, clinical director of acute services and continuing care, that existing cuts would be consolidated but there would be no further closures of beds or services this year.

Galway University Hospitals (GUH) is now likely to reach the end of the year with a €19m deficit, while the overspend for the Galway/Roscommon area will have reached €34m. Dr O’Keeffe told the meeting that the local health services had already been stretched to breaking point.

Chairman of the Regional Health Forum Cllr Padraig Conneely welcomed the announcement as a temporary reprieve but said that the fear was now that the central HSE would punish the West for failing to control its finances.

“We have been granted a stay of execution but we must now fight tooth and nail to ensure that the matter is resolved and not merely deferred until next year,” he said.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune