Patients will be ‘sent home to die’ as HSE orders further cuts

Date Published: 05-Mar-2009

SAVAGE cutbacks to the health services across County Galway will mean that sick patients will be asked to leave their hospital beds days earlier than they would normally have to as a whopping €37 million in additional savings are being sought.

And it has led to accusations that the HSE will now be sending home patients to die as the full impact sweeping cutbacks are set to be felt within weeks.

It will also result in ward closures at University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park and Portiuncula in Ballinasloe as patients are to experience the main brunt of the across the board rationalisation plan.

Patients will be discharged sooner and the number of in-patient admissions will be reduced as part of the plan to implement the massive expenditure cuts.

Temporary staff including nursing and medical staff are to be let go while the public will be discouraged from attending accident and emergency – where the number of patients on trolleys are expected to break all previous records.

The grim news for the health services in the west was…