Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 June 2004
69 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Health and Children the current overspend in the ERHA broken down by health board, up to 1 June 2004; the reasons for the overspend and the measures being taken by him to address this problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18361/04]
View answerThe latest information available to my Department from the Eastern Regional Health Authority is in respect of expenditure for the four months ended 30 April 2004. The ERHA is reporting an excess of €25 million approx. over the period budget of €1,053 million or a variance of 2.4%. The variance against period budget to end April for each sector is as follows
|
Variance€m |
|
|
Voluntary Acute Sector |
9.308 |
|
Voluntary Non-Acute Sector |
(0.838) |
|
Intellectual Disability Services Sector |
0.892 |
|
Northern Area Health Board |
7.793 |
|
East Coast Area Health Board |
2.690 |
|
South West Area Health Board |
5.421 |
|
ERHA Corporate |
nil |
|
Total |
25.266 |
The issues giving rise to the variance over budget, as identified by the ERHA, include an increase in acute hospital activity over the same period last year of 4% overall, with an increase in day case activity of 8.6%; non-pay costs, particularly in the area of clinical costs, including drugs and high cost treatments; and increased spending on demand-led schemes;
The ERHA is continuing to work with its service providers to manage expenditure within the annual determination as required under the financial control framework, while continuing to respond to the pressure on accident and emergency and acute hospital services and the knock-on effect on services for older people. As stipulated by the Minister for Finance and set out as a requirement in the letter of determination, the ERHA has a contingency sum set aside to deal with unexpected issues and service pressures arising during the year.
The over-riding accountability objective of my Department is to monitor the provision of health and children's services by reference to approved service plans and, in particular, to ensure that agencies, including ERHA, manage the delivery of services within the approved levels of expenditure.
