Hospital is €3.3m over budget

Fears are growing that services could be cut at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore as it emerged that the hospital was over budget to the tune of €3.3m to the end of July. The latest performance report from the HSE revealed that the budget for the hospital for the first seven months of the year was €46,072,000, but the actual spend at the hospital until the end of July was €49,374,000, a budget overspend of €3,302,000 or 7.2%. Cllr Tommy McKeigue, who is a member of the HSE regional forum, said while there is generally an overspend in the first half of the year, it will be very hard to claw back €3m by the end of the year. He said he hopes there won't be any cuts in orthopedics as people waiting on hip replacements can be in a lot of pain. He added that there are already long waiting lists for the removal of tonsils and he would like to see resources invested in these areas. Cllr McKeigue said some elective surgery could be curtailed but next year they would need to be selective in where money is going to. "Under the new scheme the more operations they're doing, the more they'll be paid," he said.