Hi °C | Lo °C THE health service will be €150m worse off if agreement is not reached on the Croke Park II agreement, it was revealed today.
The €150m, to be generated from cuts in pay, allowances and other arrangements under the agreement, has already been inserted in the Health Service Executive's(HSE) savings plan for 2013.
HSE chief Tony O' Brien told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children today that it will have to find the money elsewhere if the deal is not agreed.
The HSE has to make €721m in savings and the scale of the financial challenge continues to be significant in 2013.
The national service plan for 2013 allows for the hiring of 1,025 new staff in a number of key prioritised areas- but another 4,000 jobs will go through natural means and a proposed redundancy scheme.
The capital plan prioritises the development of the National Children’s Hospital, the replacement of the Central Mental Hospital, the National Programme for Radiation Oncology and the continued roll out of primary care centres.
An extra 100,000 medical cards will be issued but 40,000 who already have the benefit will lose them as a result of tighter means testing and the abolition of some outgoings which people could include in their eligibility criteria.
