HSE West under fire for Û20.6 million health cuts

By Dara Bradley

Officials from Health Service Executive (HSE) West will come under fire later today (Tuesday) over the planned swingeing cutbacks to the health budget in Galway and the western region this year.

The unveiling of the HSE’s ‘West Area Service Plan’ last week revealed the agency is accelerating its budgetary cuts in 2012 and senior management has warned frontline services to patients will be affected.

The service plan has wiped €20.6 million from the budget of Galway University Hospitals (GUH) in the city (Merlin Park and UHG) and has stripped Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe of almost €3 million.

It has also wiped more than €14 million off its allotted budget in 2012 for the provision of primary, community and continuing care (PCC care) throughout Galway. In total, €105 million will be pared back from the HSE West budget this year.

The cutbacks are even greater this year than last year; and the policy of cuts will attract widespread criticism later today at a HSE West Regional Forum meeting.

City Councillor Catherine Connolly (Ind) has called on Galway West government backbenchers, Fine Gael’s Brian Walsh and Seán Kyne, and the Labour Party’s Derek Nolan, to break their silence on the cuts.

Cllr Connolly said it was “unforgiveable” for the Labour Party to preside over the denigration of the public health service in Galway. “The impact of these further cuts on all health services are particularly shocking in the context of Galway where existing health services are at crisis point,” she said.

As things stand, more than 20,000 patients are on a waiting list for between two and four years for treatment – this is at a time when beds, wards and theatres are shut.

In addition, 183 staff are leaving the health service in Galway under the early retirement scheme, 80 from the county’s hospitals and 103 from primary care. The majority leaving are nurses, she said. Cllr Connolly said the service plan is littered with contradictions that make no sense.

“The cutbacks further undermine the provision of a public health service, the plan proposes to penalise UHG and Merlin Park for failing to achieve targets. This will be done by way of forcing the public hospitals to pay for treatment for patients in private hospitals while empty wards, beds and a shortage of staff in UHG and Merlin Park ensure that these targets simply cannot be met.”