Hospital group cuts overspend – but still faces a €24m shortfall by end of the year

Now known as the West North West Hospitals Group, which will be managed by CEO Bill Maher as well as the newly appointed regional director of performance and integration, Gerry O’Neill, the improved financial position is due to increased funding, savings on wages to be achieved under the Haddington Road agreement, a cut in overtime and other cost cuts.

Wages for agency nursing staff had fallen by €600,000 in the last eight months while overtime costs had reduced by €1.17m. There was a €2.95m decrease across the expanded group of hospitals compared to the same time last year.

Of the €20m budget overspend to the end of August, €11m was attributable to University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park, Portiuncula and Roscommon hospitals, Mr Maher told this week’s Regional Health Forum West.

UHG was constrained in its ability to generate income from private patients as it had an undersupply of en suite single rooms, and those that were there were reserved for patients who needed to be isolated due to infections.

The group had been given the go-ahead to build a new wing of single occupancy rooms, which would allow the hospital to charge more for its services.

Chairman Padraig Conneely said he was forced once again to highlight the outstanding debt from insurance companies due to the failure of consultants to sign off on claim forms. It was now at €10.6m, with €260,000 owed from one consultant’s patients.

“We’re raising this for years, these well paid consultants refusing to cooperate. We were told by the Department of Health they were bringing in new regulations so the hospital would be able to sign off. Do they want to retain their all-powerful position in hospital,” he fumed.

However Mr Maher refuted the suggestion that nothing was being done to recoup the money, pointing out that the debt had decreased by €2m in half a year.

“It’s not about upper hands. It has come down and you have to recognise that,” he retorted to Cllr Conneely. “And the day that it comes right down you will also have to acknowledge that.”

There was an even more heated exchange between the two when Cllr Conneely recounted his experience in raising the concerns of a patient who had made several unsuccessful attempts to get a lung biopsy.

After contacting the hospital, his calls were returned by a consultant who told him how dare he contact the hospital or the consultant on behalf of a patient.

“After a long conversation he told me to stick to politics and he would stick to medicine. This patent was given a date for a biopsy, it was never carried out because a bed wasn’t available. Then he gets a letter a few days later with an appointment to discuss the results of the biopsy that he never had. It’s absolute incompetence,” he insisted.

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