THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has told its 110,000 staff that it needs to eliminate between €400 million and €500 million in costs next year and that significant work-practice changes are required.
In a memo to staff yesterday the HSE's national director of human resources Seán McGrath said the organisation had to end work practices that had no place in today's economic climate and stop paying for things it could not afford.
The HSE should eliminate what he described as "double-digit absenteeism or inappropriately high sickness level". It should only use overtime, agency cover and on-call allowances in exceptional situations. The HSE should get rid of "inequitable and unjustifiable allowances" and eliminate unproductive and demoralising demarcation, according to the memo.
Mr McGrath said the country was facing one of the most difficult periods in living memory and that staff in the public health service were not immune from its effects. There was a need "to put in place solutions that enable us minimise its impacts on patients".
"Businesses across the country are floundering. On a daily basis people who have been in secure, long-term employment are losing their jobs. Unfortunately many more, and their families, who are in work, may find themselves with an uncertain future over the coming months," he said.
"As public sector employees, we do not face the same levels of insecurity. We are less vulnerable to the uncontrollable market forces faced by our private sector colleagues. With this security comes a very important public service responsibility."
Mr McGrath said that while it was important to acknowledge the outstanding achievements from staff around the country in delivering value-for-money targets so far during 2008, he warned that next year the HSE had to take between €400 million and €500 million worth of cost out of its business.
"Importantly, we must achieve these while at the same time protecting services and advancing with our transformation targets such as widening access to care and improving the quality and safety of services," he noted.
"We cannot allow unresolved industrial relations matters to stand in the way of patient care and we will therefore seek to work closely together, both locally and at national level . . .
"I am confident that we are well capable of rising to the challenge and weathering this storm . . . but it will demand that we concentrate our energies on invigorating our enduring values of teamwork and mutuality," he said.
Next year and beyond would require real and steadfast leadership from all who occupy leadership positions within health services, he said. "We have highlighted to union leaders that we simply have to do more with what we have. We have no choice."
The Irish Timesrevealed earlier this month that the HSE was seeking to reduce overtime by 50 per cent across all grades; to save €50 million by ending special grants and allowances made to non-consultant hospital doctors; and to secure €25 million in savings by introducing new centralised arrangements for contract procurement. Health sector unions are to discuss their own proposals for savings at a meeting next Tuesday.