Health spending cuts of €424m on way as hospitals see fewer patients

HSE-run nursing homes will be among the areas facing cuts in health spending of €424m this year, as a new report shows Waterford, Galway and Tullamore are among the hospitals that treated fewer day patients in the last six years.

The Department of Health is trying to make savings even as hospitals are being told to improve their output and work rate.

The spending cuts will be rolled out amid promises to show the public how individual hospitals are performing in key areas such as outpatient clinics, day-case procedures, theatre use and consultant productivity from June.

An action plan has targeted savings of €424m this year – rising to €554m in a full year – “aimed at minimising the level of financial risk the HSE is facing in 2024”.

“It will be accompanied by a range of productivity measures” that aim to maximise access to health services for patients, said the report.

Areas targeted for savings include spending on medicines, non-pay costs, procurement costs, the cost of care in long-term residential care for older people and management consultancy costs.

The Department of Health could not say if individual consultant waiting lists in each hospital will be published from June despite a promise of more detailed information in its action plan.

Meanwhile, the variance in performance by hospitals is among the findings in a new Department of Health report covering 2016 to 2022, asking why there is not more to see for the billions pumped into the health service.

In total, 11 hospitals had a fall in the day-case procedures for patients over that time.

At the same time, Beaumont Hospital, the Mater, University Hospital Limerick, Tallaght and St James’s Hospital were among those which carried out additional procedures.

Waterford Hospital is frequently held up for praise because of its low trolley figures, but it has high waiting lists.

Between 2016 and 2022, the health service budget increased by more than €8bn.

Ireland now ranks ninth in terms of spending per capita out of the EU14 (countries that have been members of the EU since before 2004) adjusting for prices.

Staff numbers grew by 30pc, or 16,000. There are 2,500 more doctors, 5,600 more nurses and 3,700 more support and administrative staff.

However, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the analysis showed activity across a number of areas in hospitals had increased by less than 10pc over the same period.

In the area of outpatients, Galway hospital saw the largest increase in activity, with an additional 51,000 appointments delivered versus 2016. This equates to an increase of 22pc.

On the other hand, numerous sites have experienced reductions in outpatient appointments, including Limerick, which had a reduction of 11,000 appointments versus 2016, a fall of 6pc.

Increases in activity happened in only seven hospitals. The Productivity and Savings Taskforce was established by Mr Donnelly in January of this year.

The minister said: “I want to deliver increased funding to help provide improved care and better access to patients.”