Managers of the country's voluntary hospitals are warning that the expected savings under the Haddington Road public service pay agreement will not materialise this year, leading to major hospital cuts in 2014.

They are predicting that the entire €150 million earmarked for savings as a result of staff pay and allowance cuts and work changes under Haddington Road could end up as a potential deficit on the books of voluntary hospitals next year.

According to an article in Health Manager, the Journal of the Health Management Institute of Ireland, managers of voluntary hospitals - those not run directly by the HSE - say they have been given totally unrealistic financial targets and timeframes for savings under Haddington Road, which will not be met.

Managers believe that while the HSE will, at the end of this year, 'bail out' its own hospitals that ran up deficits, voluntary hospitals will be left with major deficits which will be deducted from their 2014 allocations, leading to 'a very difficult year for patients in 2014'.

The hospital managers believe that due to delays in implementing Haddington Road they will not be able to make the savings under the pay deal projected by the Government.

The article also reveals that voluntary hospitals' financial position is being eroded further by the fact that they have to fund directly the cost of pension and lump sum payments to staff under the 'exit' voluntary redundancy schemes of recent years.

This has meant that the hospitals had to find lump sums and pension payments from their allocations while having to try and manage services without the staff who had left and could not be replaced due to the recruitment embargo. 

According to the article, one manager predicted that the exit packages are draining voluntary hospital finances to a stage that if they are not careful, the hospitals will soon be spending more money on pensions and lump sums than on services.