Sixty beds to close at Sligo General Hospital
Sixty beds are to close at Sligo General Hospital as part of cost-cutting plans to deal with an overspend of €5.9 million.
Twenty-five workers are set to have their working hours reduced, some of them to as little as just eight hours a week. Staff will also be transferred to the community sector and the hospital's’s drug stock is set to be reduced. Trade union Impact says the services affected include radiology and oncology. The HSE says the plans, which have been outlined to staff and unions, have not been finalised.
It warned that in “some most financially challenging times that we have ever seen within Irish health services” it may have to take “severe actions” later in the year “that will have an even greater affect on services into the future”.
The cuts, which were outlined on Monday, are part of a reduction of €90 million in HSE spending in Sligo, Donegal and Leitrim.
The proposed closure of 60 beds follows the loss of 72 beds at the hospital last year.
It is understood the €5.9m of savings are aimed at reducing a projected budget deficit of €12.9 million compared to a budget of €97.5 million for 2010.
Richie Carrothers of Impact said that any overspend at the hospital was due to more people needing treatment.
“More people are presenting with medical cards and fewer people now have health insurance, leading to more demands on services locally."
He said reducing working time to just eight hours per week would mean that workers engaged in delivering vital services could not earn a living wage and would have to join the other reported 3,000 workers in public services whose incomes are so low that they would have to claim family income support.
“Staff working on fixed term contracts have contractual rights under the Fixed Term Workers Act and it is illegal to treat them less favourably. A reduction in the number of working hours, on the scale proposed, would devastate the lives of these workers first of all.”
The HSE has briefed staff at the hospital on the financial situation at the hospital and the proposals to deal with the overspend.
In a statement to the Donegal Democrat the HSE said it is “developing a cost containment plan to ensure that the hospital can deliver on service targets while remaining within allocated budget”.It is endeavouring to keep reductions in services to a minimum.
Regional Director of Operations for HSE West, John Hennessy, said: “If we continue to do the same things in the same way we will get the same result. We have to do the right things for the future and we have to eliminate inefficiency and maximise the use of our resources to protect the future of our services. There are challenges in all health services across the country at the moment given the current economic climate but we have to be in a position here in the West, now and for the future, to meet those challenges and ensure we have the best possible services for the people living in our area.”
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Weather for Donegal
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 5 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Heavy rain
Temperature: 5 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: South
