THE HEALTH Service Executive yesterday revised downwards its expected deficit for this year but it still has to make savings of more than €700 million during 2009.
Its deficit was revised downwards by €200 million after new figures from the Department of Finance suggested its income from the health levy paid by workers would fall by €100 million this year rather than by the €300 million projected earlier by the HSE based on the amount of the levy it received in January.
In January its income from the levy fell by €30 million but in February it fell by the lower figure of €22 million.
After a meeting of the HSE board yesterday the executive said the best estimate of the financial shortfall it would now face this year was €480 million, a figure quoted by Minister for Health Mary Harney in the Dáil earlier this week.
The HSE has indicated it will have to raise €205 million of this €480 million itself and Ms Harney has advised it that the Government will “consider” finding the other €275 million of it in the context of the forthcoming budget to cover the cost of increased numbers of medical cards.
The HSE was already implementing measures to achieve savings of €530 million in 2009. This means it now has to make total savings of €735 million this year.
Last month after a special meeting of the HSE board its chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm said that it faced a deficit of more than €1.1 billion.
Yesterday the HSE said €133 million of the extra €205 million it needs to make in savings has already been identified. It will come from cutting temporary staff, agency staff and closing hospital beds. It now has to identify a further €72 million in cuts and Prof Drumm said frontline services were likely to be affected in this new round of cuts. However, the extent of the cuts is not now expected to be as severe as first anticipated.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s HSE board meeting also considered differences between Prof Drumm and the HSE board over the filling of a new senior post in the organisation, that of national director of operations. The tensions centre on whether responsibility for making this appointment rests with the chief executive or the board.
Asked about the outcome of deliberations on this issue, the HSE in a short statement said the board had received a report and update on the process in relation to the appointment of the three new national directors of planning and performance, quality and clinical care, and operations.
“It was agreed that these appointments would be further deliberated at a later meeting,” it said. “As this recruitment process is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further on this matter until the process has been fully completed,” it added.