New report shows that money remains serious problem at Letterkenny General

The most recent hospital performance indicators published by the HSE show Letterkenny General Hospital is generally performing well, but money remains a serious problem.
The hospital is rated as performing very well in many areas, with room for improvement in others. However, the figures show that at the end of October, Letterkenny General was just over €8.4 million over-budget.
The results are graded in a traffic light system, green denoting very good performance, amber denoting average performance with improvement possible, and red denoting the need for urgent action.
The hospital functions which return a green rating include out patient referral times for ultrasound, x-ray, colonoscopy and physiotherapy. In terms of appropriateness of admissions and care, the hospital was well within all targets, and it also performed well in the area of day procedures.
However, when it came to elective surgery, no discipline met the target of 75% admissions on the day. An amber rating was given in terms of adult waiting times for elective surgery, but a red was given in the case of children.
Most worrying for the hospital, finance remains a concern, with year to date expenditure of € 88,568,000, 10% over budget.
The fear now is that measures to claw back that deficit may see more procedures cancelled, and see the  gaps in service widen further.
Link to online report –
http://www.hse.ie/eng/staff/Healthstat/hospitalresults/LGH/October_2011_Letterkenny_General_Hospital.pdf