Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

In common with all hospitals, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, is addressing the challenge of delivering a high quality service to its patients while remaining within budget. The hospital is committed to providing the full level of services that it promised in its 2009 service plan. The top priority will be to protect patient care.

So far this year, Crumlin hospital has delivered more treatments to patients than in the same period last year. In the first three months of 2009, there were 2,745 treatments for children as inpatients and 3,841 as day cases, an increase of 244 over 2008. Crumlin also had 21,252 attendances at the outpatient department, an increase of 1,041 from the first quarter of last year.

The 2009 allocation to Crumlin is €139.6 million, an increase of some 39% over the past five years. This includes a reduction of 3% this year over 2008 in line with the budgetary constraints facing the entire public sector and the wider economy. A particular challenge for the hospital is that it is operating at some 100 posts above its employment ceiling. It employed 1,650 people at the end of March compared with an approved 1,550. This contributes to its current financial difficulties.

The HSE is working closely with Crumlin hospital to achieve an agreed programme of savings totalling €6.5 million this year. The focus of these savings will be on non-pay areas of expenditure and on protecting front-line services. On this basis, the HSE believes the hospital will achieve a break-even position this year.

We need to consider more strategically the way in which we provide paediatric services in Dublin. In 2009, the Government will provide more than €250 million for the running of three paediatric hospitals in the Dublin area. We can achieve significant cost savings if services and practices are more closely integrated across the three hospital sites, even before the new national paediatric hospital has been completed. With this in mind, the HSE is pursuing ways in which services across the three hospitals can best be co-ordinated to avoid unnecessary duplication and to achieve savings that can be put into patient care.

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