Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, Leo Varadkar, has called on the management of Connolly Hospital to change the pay-and-display parking system which is causing problems for patients and visitors. The pay-and-display car parking system is similar to that used for on-street parking in the City Centre. Drivers have to guess how long they will be in the car-parking and pay upfront. This is causing real problems as patients are often left waiting longer than they had expected for appointments. In some cases, patients have lost their place in the queue while they went out to top up their parking.

‘Connolly is the only hospital that I know that uses a pay-and-display system. Most hospitals in Dublin use a ticket system and require visitors and out-patients to pay the correct amount at the end of their stay. This is a much better system. Obviously, we would all prefer to have free parking but with the hospital budget under pressure that is not possible.’

‘I spoke to the Hospital Manager about it during the week and he acknowledged that the new system was not working and that the hospital would move to a barrier system in future but could not say when. In the mean time the hospital has introduced a €5 tag for half-day parking which should cover most people’

The budget for Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown will be by cut from €103m to €90m in 2010 according to figures seen by Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, Dr Leo Varadkar.  This represents a cut of €13 million or 12.6% and is the most savage cutback in funding for this HSE controlled hospital since the early 1980’s when outright closure of the hospital was considered.  Approximately, €5.5 million of this is a reflection of the pay cuts in Budget.  But the hospital is now expected to find another €7.5 million in savings on top of this.

‘These cuts are savage and will impact on hospital services and patient care.  Everyone understands that the country is broke and that efficiencies and savings have to be made.  But a cut back of 12.6% cannot be delivered through efficiencies or reforms in one year.  It is too much, too quickly and will result in chaos and suffering for patients and their families.  It must be reversed’

‘I will be seeking an adjournment debate in Dail Eireann to raise this issue with the Minister for Health.  I cannot see how she and Brian Lenihan can support cutbacks of this scale and brutality.  I am also calling on the government to abandon the failed HSE project and adopt Fine Gael’s FairCare policy under which money will follow the patient and hospital’s will paid more for doing more work rather than being forced to reduce the work they in order to meet budgetary targets.’

Patients will suffer & serious illnesses could go undetected

Fine Gael Dublin West TD Dr Leo Varadkar has today (Thursday) revealed further health service cutbacks after Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown was forced to cancel all non-emergency work until the end of September.

According to a confidential memorandum from the Hospital Manager seen by Dr Varadkar, the hospital has cancelled all elective out-patient and in-patient work from August 18th until September 30th. Deputy Varadkar says patients will suffer and there is a risk that serious illnesses will not be detected at an early stage. …[more]

The decision to roll back some of the cuts at Connolly Hospital is ‘not good enough according’ to Fine Gael TD, Leo Varadkar.

‘I understand a proposal to close one medical ward and one surgical ward for a full month in the summer has been abandoned. However, out-patients clinics will still close for two full weeks in August and two full weeks in December and the Day Ward will still close for two weeks over the summer. This partial roll back of hospital cuts is noty enough and Fianna Fail and the Greens are mistaken if they think we are going to let this issue drop’ …[more]

RTE News carried a piece yesterday evening, highlighting the cut-backs which are going to see;

- Closure of a surgical ward for one month in the summer;
- Closure of a medical ward for one month in the summer;
- Closure of the out-patient clinics* for two full weeks in the summer and two weeks in December; and a
- Ban on repair of non-essential equipment.bed closures, surgery cancellations, and a freeze on employing student nurses.

As I highlighted last week, I am very concerned by these cut-backs which highlight the crazy system in operation. The Government has spent tens of millions of Euros building new wards in the Connolly Hospital and has spent millions more hiring seven new consultants. Now, in order to save a few hundred thousand Euros, these wards will be closed and consultants will not be able to see new patients.