HSE employs almost 3,000 more than officials allowed

Staff numbers: The health service now has almost 3,000 more staff than officially allowed under the Government's employment ceiling, according to new figures seen by The Irish Times.

In an internal report drawn up by management of the Health Service Executive (HSE) for its board, there were 102,540 staff (whole time equivalents) employed at the end of February.

This represented an increase of 568 on the figures set out in a provisional Department of Health personnel census at the end of December 2005.

However, the report says that staffing levels fell by 40 in the month of January 2006.

The report says the staffing level in the HSE is 2,990 above that set out in the Government's employment ceiling for the health sector.

Negotiations have been ongoing for some time between the Department of Health and the Department of Finance on a new agreement on staffing levels for the sector.

Such a deal would aim to reconcile the Government's plans to reduce numbers in the public service with the requirement of the HSE to provide additional services for a growing and ageing population.

The HSE figures show that staffing levels in the health service have increased by 3,817 since the end of 2004.

The report says that over that period the numbers in posts classified as management or administration increased by 435, although it also says that employment levels in this category fell by 233 in the month of January 2006.

The report says that since December 2004, over 1,300 additional nurses and 353 more doctors and dentists have been employed in the public health services.

At the end of February there were 35,625 nurses employed by the HSE as well as 7,366 doctors and dentists. There were 16,592 people categorised as management/administration.

However, the HSE has argued that the bulk of these have direct dealings with patients.

In a commentary of the employment figures provided to the board, the chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, said there were several factors leading to the increased staff numbers.

He said these included the need to fill critical front-line posts and the ongoing requirement to fill posts associated with the 10-point plan drawn up in 2005 to deal with problems in hospital accident and emergency departments.

He said there had also been a need to fill posts associated with the development of services in the mental health and disabilities area.

Prof Drumm said there was also an ongoing requirement to fill positions associated with the commissioning of new hospital units as announced in September 2004 by the then Minister for Health Micheál Martin and for other service developments set out by the Government last year.

He added that some of the posts created were associated with the introduction of new structures in the national hospitals office of the HSE and the primary, community and continuing care sector.

There had also been increased levels of recruitment of nurses to offset the fact that there would be no graduation of nurses in Ireland in 2005/2006, said Prof Drumm.