Taoiseach defends HSE plan for 50,000 fewer medical cards next year

The HSE is planning to issue 50,000 fewer medical cards next year.

Taoiseach defends HSE plan for 50,000 fewer medical cards next year

Update 1.55pm: The Taoiseach Enda Kenny is defending the plans to cut the number of medical cards next year.

Mr Kenny has been quizzed on the issue in the Dáil, and he said: "As the Minister pointed out, with no change in the criteria and no review, 40,000 people moved out of the medical card sector last year.

"We expect that to be something in the order of 50,000 this year.

"The Government's plan is to create more jobs to pay less taxes and therefore have more people being able to invest in these kinds of services."

The HSE says it is going to do what it can with stretched budgets in acute hospitals to address a shortfall of at least €100m.

Chief Financial Officer with the HSE, Stephen Mulvany says savings are preferable to cuts.

He said: "We looked at all the options to deal with that €100m and we decided that the preferable course of action is to set very challenging savings targets and to manage against those.

"So every one of those actions that we have identified are things we need to do, but we'd much prefer to be managing that stretched challenge than seeking to manage the alternative challenge, which would be to reduce services.

"That's not in the interests of patients and it's very poor for staff morale."

Update 1.35pm: Director General of the HSE Tony O'Brien says the eligibility for medical cards is not changing.

He said: "There are likely to be about 50,000 less medical cards in use by the end of 2016 than there will be at the end of this year.

"It is not a target, it is an assumption. Assumptions do not have any impact on eligibility, ever."

Update11.45am: The HSE is short €150m in funding for acute hospitals in its service plan for 2016.

The HSE said that while it expected it could meet €50m of that shortfall next year, in order to plug the €100m gap, it may have to make cuts to hospitals - but only as a last resort.

The executive is also planning to issue 50,000 fewer medical cards next year. The Health Minister Leo Varadkar said this related to an increase in the number people returning to work.

There has been an almost 7% increase in funding for next year, or and additional €817m.

However, this falls to €100m taking into account the actual spend on health this year.

Update 11.20am: There has been an increase of €35m to mental health funding under the HSE service plan.

Minister of State for mental health Kathleen Lynch said the extra funds would allow them to develop a different service to tackle mental illness.

She said: "We must make sure we intervene earlier (in mental health cases)," she said.

Earlier:

The Health Minister Leo Varadkar has said the latest HSE service plan is very open about the financial challenges it faces.

The plan will be launched later today, setting out how the health service will spend its more than €13bn budget next year, and how it will save €100m.

The Department of Health required more than €660m in extra funding this year.

Minster Varadkar said the health service was notoriously difficult to budget for, as it was impossible to predict such things as how many people would visit emergency departments.

"It's very hard to predict how many babies will be born, how many people will turn up at your emergency department, how many inhalers doctors will prescribe," he said.

"The way to get around that of course would be to set aside a really big contingency fund every year and then dip into that as challenges arise - but that's something we don't do.

"What we say is we would rather put the money into services and deal with pressures as they arise - and we're being very open in this plan."

He added he hoped the Taoiseach and the Government as a whole would take a greater interest in his department if they were returned to power in the upcoming election.

"Enda Kenny is dedicated to being Taoiseach. He's not the Minister for Health," he said. "The priority in the past four and a half years has been the economy, because you can do nothing about health or housing or education unless you have a strong economy.

"What I would hope in the second term, if we have a second term, is the Government as a whole, including the Taoiseach, will take a greater interest in healthcare now that we have a strong economy."

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