THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has said that it delivered more services last year than agreed in its service plan with Government and came in within its official budget.
In its annual report published yesterday the HSE said that service delivery was between 3 and 4 per cent ahead of target while there were over 2,000 fewer staff on the payroll last year than officially allowed under the employment levels agreed with the Government.
The annual report reveals that the HSE surrendered to the exchequer the €8.5 million surplus it recorded in 2009.
The chief executive of the HSE Prof Brendan Drumm said that more than €1 billion in value-for-money savings had now been secured, including a sum of €115 million in efficiency savings last year.
The HSE chief confirmed a report published in The Irish Timeslast weekend that the organisation recorded a deficit of €100 million in the first four months of the year and that it was behind schedule on securing the reduction of 1,520 in staff numbers sought by the Government this year.
He said that if staff departures continued at the current rate it could present a challenge for some developments proposed this year.
Some of these proposed developments, including nearly 80 additional posts in the cancer control programme, are conditional on other staff leaving.
Prof Drumm also indicated that the savings to bring the budget back into line, following the €100 million deficit recorded in the first four months of the year, would primarily have to be made in the areas where the overrun occurred.
An official HSE report given to the board of the organisation last week said that hospitals in the western part of the country had recorded a deficit of over €36 million in the first four months.
The annual report also reveals that one former health board chief executive who had been working in the HSE had last year received a severance payment of €65,155 and had their service for pension purposes increased by 10 years.