The East Coast Area Health Board will have to introduce cost-saving measures of €18 million this year if it is to break even at the end of the year, it has emerged.
The health board, which covers parts of Dublin and Wicklow, became the latest in a series of health agencies to reveal details of the financial crisis facing it yesterday.
It follows claims that the major Dublin teaching hospitals, including the Mater, St James's, Beaumont and Tallaght, face a €100 million deficit this year unless they get extra funding. The Coombe Women's Hospital also said would run over-budget.
The health board's acting chief executive, Mr Gavin Maguire, said part of the problem was that the board had carried a €6.1 million deficit from last year.
The main problem, he added, was that the health board was still struggling to recoup its start-up costs. The health board was created in 2000 when the Eastern Health Board was dissolved and replaced with three area health boards, overseen by the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
Mr Maguire, in a report to board members, said he was informed of the board's 2003 budget on February 19th and had been liaising with the ERHA "to understand the detail behind some of the figures".
"On the basis of our understanding of the allocation letter we are currently projecting a cumulative deficit of €14 million by the end of 2003, on the assumption of continuance of the cost containment measures implemented during 2002.
"This €14 million does not include additional target savings of €4 million set by the ERHA in our allocation letter. Therefore the achievement of a break-even position in 2003 would require cost-saving measures amounting to €18 million," he said.