The funding pressures now being experienced in the health services mean that the acute sector must reduce its costs in order to deliver the agreed level of activity within the resources available to it. This means that we must concentrate on maximising efficiency and getting the best possible services for patients from the budgets available to us. However, this on its own is not sufficient. Activity levels in our acute hospitals have been running ahead of the levels set in the approved HSE Service Plan and therefore it is inevitable that activity levels must also be reduced. This will be a significant challenge, and in meeting it we must be flexible and responsive to service needs, in order to ensure that essential services are protected and that patient safety and quality remain paramount.
For the Louth-Meath Hospital Group cost-containment measures will include:
- Reduction in spending on agency and overtime
- Closure of some beds, the effect of which will be mitigated in so far as possible by the commissioning of transitional care beds for clinically discharged patients
- Reduction in activity to bring it into line with approved levels
This will be a significant challenge, and in meeting it the focus is on ensuring that essential services are protected and that patient safety and quality remain paramount. In particular, emergency services, oncology services and obstetrics are being prioritised and the focus is on protecting these.
The Senior Management Team in the Louth Meath Hospital Group have already met with staff and staff union representatives to advise on the range of cost containment measures being introduced in Louth Meath Hospitals. All measures proposed to date have been risk assessed and the Senior Management Team in Louth Meath Hospital Group are satisfied that the risk assessment is a reasonable and comprehensive assessment of potential risks, and their mitigation and control and is compliant with national policies and HSE guidelines. The risk register will be managed by senior managers and clinicians within the hospital group.
It is important to note that across the acute hospital sector as a whole, reduction in costs will come from greater efficiencies where possible, including shorter average length of stay which in turn reduces the number of bed days needed. For example, the implementation of the HSE’s Acute Medicine Clinical Care Programme has saved 121,000 bed days to date this year. Similarly, the HSE’s transitional care initiative is shortening the average length of stay in acute beds by putting in place 190 transitional care beds and 150 rehabilitation beds this year, to which patients can move when appropriate.
