Agreement to prevent HSE staff from double-jobbing

HSE STAFF or employees of bodies funded by the HSE are to be banned from “double-jobbing” for agencies that supply personnel such as nurses, non-consultant doctors, therapists and healthcare assistants.

The HSE said yesterday the measures formed part of new agreements reached with employment agencies. It said these new deals could save more than €40 million across the wider health service this year.

HSE national director for human resources Seán McGrath said it had paid around €138 million last year to up to 30 separate agencies for the provision of agency personnel across grades such as nursing, allied healthcare professionals, non-consultant doctors and healthcare assistants.

He said that on foot of a new procurement system, which involves offering contracts for the provision of such staff in 12 separate lots, “significant savings” would be generated.

Mr McGrath said that, based on the same level of agency personnel as in 2010, there was a potential saving of more than €33 million for the HSE alone.

Mr McGrath said if this was extended into the voluntary sector, the potential saving would be more than €40 million. It is understood the savings could be generated as a result of lower commission levels for agencies, which in turn could lead to cuts in payments for staff working for them.

Mr McGrath said one crucial point of the new contracts was that the HSE had insisted none of its staff or employees of bodies which it funded could work for the agencies providing workers to the public health service.

He said that staff who had recently left the HSE under the Government’s voluntary redundancy and early retirement schemes would also be prohibited from working for these agencies. “By and large, the idea of someone having two pay slips, which in the past we all believe was a feature of health sector employment, will no longer be permitted.”

He said staff who had retired from the health service could work for agencies.

Mr McGrath said that 2,006 personnel had left the HSE under the Government’s recent voluntary redundancy and early retirement schemes and that the average payout to staff taking voluntary redundancy was €42,000.

Under the early retirement scheme, the average payment for support staff was €44,000, while for managerial and administrative personnel the figure was €72,000.

The HSE’s assistant national director for primary care reimbursement Patrick Burke said that it would generate savings of €200 million this year on the cost of drugs under a deal reached with the pharmaceutical industry. He added that processing of about 40 per cent of applications for medical cards is being centralised.