Dáil debates

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

Hospitals Funding

10:00 am

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Budgets vary from hospital group to hospital group and from individual hospital to individual hospital. All hospital groups and hospitals have had an increase in their budget allocation in 2015 over 2014. What we have not done is allow them to incorporate their entire overrun last year into their base for this year. This is very different. We cannot have a situation where hospitals overrun by 15% or 16% and receive a further 2% on top of this for the next year. We will not allow this. The Deputy has clearly read the performance assurance report, PAR, but he has been quite selective in the sections he mentioned. What is very interesting and of concern about the figures for January and February - the figures for both months are similar - is that hospitals are spending more money and have more staff but fewer patients. The numbers attending emergency departments decreased in January. The number of elective admissions also decreased. What happened in January and February was that hospitals hired more staff and spent more money but saw fewer patients. That is not acceptable. It is very important that hospital managers and chief financial officers understand this and get to grips with it in the coming months.

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