Representatives of the Western Health Board are expected to meet officials of the Department of Health and Children tomorrow or Thursday in the continuing row over the number of job cuts to be implemented by the board. The Minister, Mr Martin, will not be at the meeting.
The Western Health Board would not say yesterday who would be on its delegation but it is expected to include the chief executive officer, Dr Sheelah Ryan.
The controversy was sparked off last week when a memo sent by Dr Ryan to members of the WHB became public. It said the Department had originally looked for 85 sanctioned posts not to be filled as part of the Government's cost-saving measures. However the Department later sought a saving of €1.15 million and this, Dr Ryan told the health board members, meant that instead 200 jobs would have to be cut.
The Minister and the Department last week denied this and said the €1.15 million sought in savings was the equivalent of not filling 85 jobs. Mr Martin said he wanted the WHB to meet his officials to explain where the figure of 200 jobs came from.
Since then, the Western Health Board has neither clarified nor withdrawn its statement. Earlier this year, Dr Ryan warned the WHB at a number of its publicly reported board meetings that savings would have to be found to get spending back within budget. The budget had been exceeded because of the cost of dealing with the winter vomiting virus. Sources also suggest that the WHB was employing about 320 more people at the end of 2001 than it had sanction for.
This is not unusual as health boards and hospitals sometimes have to employ people for particular projects in the expectation of getting sanction later. The worsening budgetary situation, however, means the chances of getting such sanction are poorer than might have been expected.
This controversy comes at a time when other health boards are also coping with spending over-runs on top of the cuts being sought by the Government. The latter amount to 800 jobs in all, the Department says.
Job cuts are most likely to affect temporary staff which could mean the non-renewal of temporary contracts for clerical and administrative workers.