HEALTH SECTOR:THE INTRODUCTION of an extended working day from 8am to 8pm for all grades in the public health service will lead to significant improvement in services for patients, Minister for Health Mary Harney has said.
The extended day is part of a range of measures that the trade unions signed up to in talks with the Government on public sector pay and reform early yesterday.
The deal also allows for the redeployment of staff within and across services. Staff may be deployed to any location within a 45km radius of their current work location or of their home address, whichever is the shorter commute.
In the first instance, volunteers for redeployment will be sought, but the written agreement states that “where there are insufficient volunteers management will be able to require staff to redeploy”.
While staff will normally be redeployed within a 45km radius the document adds that in some instances due to the specialist nature of posts, “redeployment options will of necessity be considered beyond these guideline distances”.
While redeployment may not always be to a role/grade of similar or equal status, an employee’s existing pay and terms and conditions will be protected if they participate in the scheme.
There will be a greater need to use redeployment to fill gaps in services in the future, given the Government moratorium on recruitment in the public service.
In addition to an extended working day, the agreement also provides for revised cross-cover arrangements and reductions in on-call tiers, particularly for junior doctors, the introduction of new arrangements to support the delivery of services over an extended period up to and including 24/7 emergency services for all grades and reviews of existing rostering arrangements including skills mix in the nursing sector.
It adds that plans are already well under way to change medical laboratory services and the work practices of their staff, and it promises further discussions with the Irish Medical Organisation in relation to the Government’s commitment to amend the Competition Act. “These discussions will be completed within two weeks,” it says.
Ms Harney told the Oireachtas health committee that a 9-5 working day in the health sector, where higher rates had to be paid for diagnostic services for example outside those hours, leading to delays in treatment for patients, would come to an end with the new deal.
She said that the agreement would also lead to savings for hospitals which would be under “enormous pressure” to live within their budgets this year. Furthermore, she said the State has a very low proportion of nurses to nurses’ assistants and the deal would also help address this.