Increase in budget for Cavan-Monaghan Hospital Group in 2013

It is being reported that the Cavan-Monaghan Group is to receive a 7.5% increase in its allocated budget from the Health Service Executive for the year ahead. At the publication of its National Service Plan for 2013 towards the end of last year, the HSE said for the first time, allocations to hospitals around the country in 2013 would be based on projected expenditure rather than on historic budgets. It also said that the aim was to ensure sustainable budgets, especially in the hospital sector, which has been seen to have struggled in recent years to break even. No hospital will be permitted to plan for a deficit this year, while bank overdrafts at voluntary hospitals used to maintain service provision will be capped. The news of an increase is in direct contrast to that of last year when the HSE's budget for 2012 for the region was described as "shocking" and "toxic" at a Regional Health Forum for the northeast. Despite large population increases the budget for the entire region was slashed by €120m, with members informed that 94 employees were to leave Cavan/Monaghan before the end of February, leaving the total staff for the two counties with the equivalent of around 2,000 employees. Area manager for the Cavan/Monaghan region Leo Kinsella addressed the forum saying that despite the 13.9% increase in population for Cavan (from 64,003 in 2006 to 72,784 in 2011) the budget for 2012 had been cut by up to €24.4m. Cavan and Monaghan hospitals lost €12.6m (14.3%) of last year's funding, while the Primary Care Scheme for the region is cut by €11.8m (12.3 per cent), leaving €84m. It is also being reported that one of the biggest hospitals in the country, St James's in Dublin, has suffered the largest individual cut in its budget among all hospitals for 2013, down 3.4% meaning a loss of €9m and a budget of €263m for the year ahead. The two major children's hospitals in Dublin, Crumlin and Temple Street, have also seen cuts of over 2%, while St Vincent's University Hospital, where the new Cystic Fibrosis unit was opened last year is down 1.5%. The hospitals that have seen big increases in their allocations are the Louth-Meath Hospital Group, up by nearly 14%, Sligo General up 5.2% and the Midland Regional, Mullingar up 2.5%. The Executive has said it approached the budget allocations for 2013 "on a hospital-by-hospital basis and in dialogue with leaders across the system to determine an objective assessment of need."