NURSING UNIONS have warned there may be a severe curtailment of some health services from Monday as a result of a shortage of nurses provided by agencies.
The unions have forecast that a significant number of agency nurses may not make themselves available for work on new lower rates of pay which are to come into force from Monday.
The unions said yesterday that some health services which were particularly reliant on agency personnel due to a moratorium on recruitment could face disruption.
Talks between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the nursing unions are due to take place next week.
The unions have maintained that under the new plans agency nurses could receive up to 60 per cent less in some cases than they have been paid up to now.
The general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, Des Kavanagh, said last night that Aids and drug services were heavily dependent on agency nursing personnel and could face disruption if there was a shortage of staff from Monday.
The general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), Liam Doran, said his union was advising members they should make themselves unavailable for work on the new lower rates of pay.
In a broadcast on the INMO’s website last night, the union’s deputy general secretary Dave Hughes said: “If you work for less you will continue to be paid less, and we cannot guarantee that you will ever have a restoration of the appropriate rate of pay for nurses and midwives.”
The HSE said last night the new arrangements for contracting agency staff would generate savings of more than €40 million across the health sector.
“The agencies on the framework are responsible for putting arrangements in place in response to local requests for agency staff. The HSE is monitoring the situation closely, and contingency arrangements will be put in place if required.” At present nurses provided by agencies are paid the 10th point on the staff nurse pay scale regardless of experience.
Under the revised plans, nurses with less than two years’ experience will be paid at the minimum point of the new lower entry scale introduced by the government. Other staff will be paid on the fifth point of the existing scale.
Unions have said that under the HSE plans, agency nurses would also receive reduced payments for working at night, on Sundays and on public holidays.