Hospital consultants have sought the Government to provide an additional €1.4 billion in funding for the health service next year.
In a pre-Budget submission published today the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said that current expenditure provisions for the HSE for 2009 needed to be increased by 9 per cent of this year’s allocation to take account of known and likely cost pressures.
The president of the IHCA, Dr Paul Oslizlok, said that the Government had two choices, either to provide the necessary funding for services or to honestly tell the public that the money was not there.
He said that it would be arrogant of him to tell the Taoiseach or the Government that they should raise taxes to generate the required level of funding for the health sector as this was not his area of expertise.
Dr Oslislok said that “it would be tragic to repeat the mistakes of 20 years ago when indiscriminate cuts caused lasting damage to the health service”.
He said that the IHCA submission confirmed that Ireland still lagged behind most of the EU in health funding.
The IHCA said that some of the additional health sector costs next year could be offset by possible efficiencies and savings if the consultation process in the Health Forum managed to reach a consensus on potential changes of this nature.
However it said that it would be “unrealistic and premature” for the HSE and the Government to assume such savings unilaterally, as there had been insufficient discussion on this issues with the trade unions and staff representative bodies to date.
