Opposition parties have reacted angrily to plans by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to rationalise accident and emergency services next year in a bid to save money.
Under the plan, which has been approved by the Minister for Health Mary Harney, the HSE will review A&E facilities at eight hospitals in Dublin and three in Cork. It will also streamline A&E services in the Midwest and at three Dublin paediatric hospitals.
In addition, the HSE intends to cut the number of hospital inpatient admissions. The HSE told unions last month it plans to close around 10 per cent of the country's acute hospital beds next year.
Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr James Reilly said patients are suffering because the Government and the HSE "squandered millions and allowed health system bureaucracy to swell while services shrank".
He said Ms Harney should be "signing off on a redundancy programme" for the HSE rather than a "blueprint for chaos" that would save money instead of lives.
"Nobody is in any doubt about the gravity of the financial situation the Government's economic mismanagement has landed us in but their priorities are all wrong," said Dr Reilly. "Where is the commitment to cancel the bonuses for HSE bosses and the cash bonanzas for outside consultancies?"
The Labour Party health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said today she was concerned about the potential impact on “already over-stretched” A&E services.
"Closing full time A&E units, particularly without providing additional resources to other units, will simply make a bad situation even worse and further diminish the level of service available to the public," she said.
Ms O'Sullivan called on the HSE to conduct a root-and-branch reform of its management structures to save money rather than target patient care.
Sinn Féin’s health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin described the proposed cuts as “savage” and said they would "be life-threatening for patients". He called for a Dáil debate on the HSE’s plan to be held before Christmas.
The Irish Patients’ Association said it had “no problem” with the HSE’s plans to save €500 million as it had been assured front line services would not be targeted. However, it said it was concerned that all stakeholders, be they staff or patients, be consulted over the plans to rationalise A&E services. It also said it hoped the HSE would not resurrect the Hanley report of 2003.
Meanwhile, Siptu is to begin a ballot today of its 9,000 health service workers in Dublin on strike action over the proposed cuts. The staff concerned include porters, catering staff and security personnel.
The union claims the HSE is planning "a return to the cutbacks of the 1980s, from which our health service has never fully recovered".
"We require more hospital beds and front line staff to treat patients, not less," said Siptu branch organiser Paul Bell.
