Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 5:30pm

Mullingar hospital budget cut by over 10 per cent

Comments (0) | Print | Email

Danielle Harney

This year's budget for the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar has been cut by 10.3% for the year by the HSE.

The hospital staff and management will have to cope with spending almost €7 million less compared to last year. The spend for this year has been capped at €57.9 million for all services and staff costs. In the four years previous to that, it had increased by 17.9%, from €54.8 million in 2006 to €64.6 million in 2009.

The financial reward of €2.3 million allocated in January to Mullingar after being named the most efficient hospital in the country under the 'casemix' system during 2009, is included in this amount. Casemix monitors hospitals under efficiency headings including the number of patients treated and the costs compared with the performance of other facilities. The system penalises inefficient hospitals and redirects money to more efficient ones.

There is no mention in the Service Plan of any attempts to re-open the 34 beds that were closed between August and November of last yea due to summer cutbacks to help meet last year's budget target. The number of patients waiting on trolleys reached new highs during January of this year, reaching 30 on some days. There is going to be a continued focus on increasing day patients by 6.5% and reducing inpatient care provided by 5.6%.

"The challenge for all working in the health service is to deliver and enhance services by improving effectiveness and reducing costs, in an in environment of reduced resources," said a spokesperson for the HSE.

The statement further said that the HSE acknowledges that it is very challenging environment with reduced budgets right across the health sector. Measures such as shorter stays in hospital, more day case procedures and providing alternatives for people who have to be admitted to hospital though Emergency Departments are all being introduced.

The budget allocation for Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore is €82.8 million. This is significantly higher than Mullingar because Tulamore is the regional centre for Orthopaedics, ENT and Renal services and the very expensive specialities of Oncology and Haematology.