THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has said that new medical cards cost it about €1,650 on average each year.
A financial report given to the board of the HSE last week expressed concern at the “relentless escalation” of activity around medical cards and other community schemes. It said this was continuing to erode a considerable proportion of the level of financial savings that the HSE had achieved.
The report, drawn up by HSE management, estimated that, going on current trends, 72,000 new medical cards will have been issued by the end of the year.
A total of 43,678 new medical cards were issued in the months to the end of July.
“At an average cost of €1,650 per card, this is an additional cost of €72 million,” the report says.
Meanwhile, the HSE board was also told that six hospitals faced “significant challenges” if they were to break even financially by the end of the year.
In the report presented last week, HSE management identified the hospitals in financial difficulties as the Mercy University Hospital in Cork, the western network of hospitals, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown in Dublin and St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.
The HSE board was told that St Vincent’s University Hospital had overspent by €4.8 million in the months to the end of July.
The report said that Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital had recorded a deficit of €2.08 million while the Mercy University Hospital was €1.99 million in the red by the end of July.
The HSE board heard that Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin had overspent by €1.761 million and Merlin Park Regional Hospital in Galway had a deficit of €1.743 million in the months to the end of July.
According to the report, the HSE overspent its budget by €143.3 million in the first seven months of the year.
The report says that at the end of July there were 110,942 whole-time equivalent staff on the HSE payroll. This represented about half of 1 per cent below the numbers officially permitted by the Government.
The HSE told trade unions last week that it was facing a potential financial shortfall of €1 billion next year under current Government proposals.
It is expected to seek an additional €1 billion in revenue from the Exchequer in the Estimates process leading up to the Budget next month.
