Budget overspend of €800,000 each month by Hospital

SPENDING IN Sligo Regional Hospital continues to be €800,000-plus per month over its approved budget, according to the latest figures released by the HSE last night (Tuesday).

However, finances in the hospital improved marginally — by a fifth of one percent — during September.

Sligo Regional is now listed 13th in Ireland — from 119 centres — for rates of absenteeism. General support staff, nursing and management/admin are the grades identified.

St Johns Hospital is also showing a budget overrun in excess of 10% for the year.

The ‘shave back’ and savings in Sligo Regional Hospital helped contribute to a national picture which saw the HSE’s overall deficit for 2012 drop back to €399 million — it’s first drop.

Sligo Regional Hospital has spent €7.4 million more than its allocated budget in the first nine months of 2012, last night’s official statistics confirm.

The Hospital has now exceeded its annual budget by 10.5%, states the HSE Performance Report for September.

Statistics for Sligo Regional Hospital reveal that by September 30th it had spent €78.4 million of its entire 2012 budget of €92.3 million.

The budget allocated by the Department of Health for 2012 suggested that Sligo Regional Hospital should have been able to get by with €70.9 million between January 1st and September 30th.

In St John’s Hospital, the accumulated budget overrun for the year now stands at €1.3 million — a 10.2% overrun.

St Johns show heavy spending on agency costs for staff in medical/dental; it accounted for 23% of payroll costs in September.

The Minister for Health, Dr Reilly, has iterated all year that there will be no bail-out for HSE or hospitals running over budget.

The Government has been under some pressure from The Troika, which oversees Ireland’s bailout. It has criticised spending on health.

The Irish Times reports this morning that the Government has agreed “to comply by the end of the month with a request from the EU-IMF troika for a detailed plan to tackle the spending overrun in the health service.”

Unspent Money

RTE has, however, offered a glimmer of hope; unexpended capital budgets in 2012 may be considered for reallocation to current-side budgets, the station’s Health Correspondent Fergal Bowers indicated last night on television.

Fianna Fáil’s Health spokesman Billy Kelleher separately predicted the Minister “will move to ‘shore up’ his budget failings by moving unspent money from his Department’s capital allocation to current spending.”

A nursing union leader, Liam Doran of the INMO, said that talk of budget overruns was ”an accountants exercise.”  The original budget was wholly inadequate, he said.

Criticism of budget overrun was “unfair, misguided and unwarranted,” added Mr Doran, who praised staff for “heroic” efforts.

The leading Labour Party councillor in Sligo, Cllr Jim McGarry, has also queried in past fortnight whether Sligo Regional Hospital has been under funded by the Government. See SligoToday.ie 5/11/2012

No Specific Reference

There is no specific reference to Cregg House in the Performance Report released last night.

Page 40 deals with an update assessment titled: ”Service Arrangements and Grant Aid Agreements.”

It remains unclear if this section — unlikely — includes any reference to the ongoing impasse between the HSE and the Daughters of Wisdom at Cregg House.

The Performance Report states: ”….Of the 27 Non Acute Agencies in receipt of over €10 million in the non acute sector, 14 have completed, with the remainder all indicating that they will sign with the exception of a single provider.”

This single provider, adds the Report, ”is in negotiations on whether they will continue to provide services.”

The Report speaks of “cost containment issues,” in particular in HSE dealings with disability agencies.

The Daughters six months ago publicly highlighted an issue of under funding in a proposed renewal of its Service Level Agreement (SLA) and said they could not continue.

In the past two months the Daughters again re-stated their commitment to leave after 57 years but offered an extension to January to the HSE.

Most Up-to-date

The Performance Reports provides the most up-to-date picture of what is happening at all levels inside Irish hospitals, community services and the HSE itself.

In comparison, the report released Monday by the Economic, Social and Research Institute (ESRI) — which assessed hospitals including Sligo Regional Hospital — refers only to 2011 and an historical analysis of data.

They Reports are released online each month after all data and commentary for the relevant month has first been sent to the Minister for Health.

Sligo Absenteeism

Sligo Regional is highlighted in the Performance Report for high levels of absenteeism. It is 13th in the country on a rolling assessment over three months up to August.

Cregg House is placed 112th in a list of 119 named centres, while Roscommon County Hospital is 7th in Irish health settings for absenteeism.

The absenteeism issue in Sligo is once again  ‘flagged’ in the summary comment to the Minister.

General support staff (9.75%), nursing staff (7.39%) and and management/admin (6.48%)  absenteeism rates in Sligo Regional Hospital all far exceed the national average of 4.7% for the three month rolling period under review.

No reasons are offered in the Performance Report, or elsewhere, as to why absenteeism — and across several grades — remains high in Sligo Regional Hospital.

The Performance Report indicates that nine in every ten incidents of absenteeism is certified — 89.8%

Finally, 1.8 million medical cards had been issued by October 1st — almost 40,000 more than were planned in budgets for 2012, says the Performance Report.

via Sligo Today News for Sligo County – Budget overspend of €800,000 each month by Hospital.

via Sligo Today News for Sligo County – Budget overspend of €800,000 each month by Hospital.