Health overspend could impact ‘new developments’ in upcoming budget – Donnelly

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said the overrun in expenditure within his department could have an effect on “new developments” within the upcoming budget.

The minister acknowledged there was a “material overrun” in health expenditure, which is reportedly projected to reach one billion euro by the end of the year.

He attributed the overspend to higher-than-expected patient demand, healthcare inflation and spending “which should not be happening” within the HSE such as agency overtime.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Mr Donnelly said the overspend was something the Government was “going to have to deal with”.

On budget negotiations, he said he would be “fighting for” the full provisioning of HSE services in the context of inflation, while also progressing towards universal healthcare.

Mr Donnelly said there had been “fair” coverage of several billion euro more being directed towards health over the course of recent budgets.

He said: “That additional funding has translated directly into an unprecedented increase in capacity, into lower costs for patients, into new services.”

As an example, Mr Donnelly pointed to waiting lists in Northern Ireland being “twice as high across the board” compared to the Republic of Ireland.

“And when we look at some of the really important areas for patients, like the number of patients waiting more than a year for a procedure, the waiting list in Ireland is now 10 times lower than in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“They’re the kind of results we’re able to produce for patients when we get the level of investment and support from Government that we’ve had so far.”