THE IMPACT trade union has strongly criticised the Health Service Executive (HSE) over a one-week closure of Connolly Hospital's outpatient department in Dublin from yesterday. It also said the outpatients department would close for another week from August 4th.
Defending the decision, the HSE said the closures corresponded with consultants' annual leave and would allow it to "manage all staff annual leave within our resources".
Impact said initially that the closure this week alone would result in 33 clinics being cancelled, and would include the special clinic for outpatients receiving the drug, Warfarin, which helps to prevent stroke.
However, responding to an Impact statement later yesterday, the HSE said that despite the closures priority clinics would still be held on set days. These include a Warfarin clinic today and next Friday and one on August 6th and August 8th. A few other clinics will be held, including a fracture clinic and a psychiatry clinic.
Impact official Phil McFadden, whose union represents clerical workers at the hospital in Blanchardstown, said he was delighted to hear that there would be some priority clinics.
He claimed this had not emerged when his members were cancelling "hundreds of appointments" over the past number of days.
Mr McFadden said the clinic closures had been described by hospital management as "a cost-cutting exercise".
However, he said, staff were unsure about how the expected savings could be achieved.
"The outpatients staff are being used as summer leave relief in other departments."
He said usually the hospital would employ temporary summer staff to cover annual leave.
Mr McFadden told Healthplus that the hospital was "getting people to do other duties" while outpatients was closed. "Our members were told to transfer to other jobs or take holidays. In one case a member took unpaid leave."
He said the HSE's chief executive, Brendan Drumm, said the cutbacks would not affect patient care.
He said those patients whose appointments were cancelled would take issue with this.
"These patients who had appointments cancelled may have to wait months to get new ones," said Mr McFadden. "It will have a knock-on effect on those awaiting appointments, pushing them even further down the list."
He said Connolly Hospital was trying to save €4 million.
Earlier this year it emerged that so called "breakeven plans" were being drawn up for various hospitals, which basically meant cutting costs and reducing services.
The breakeven plan for Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown in west Dublin includes "phased closure of beds at strategic intervals during the year", "closure of the outpatients department for two weeks during summer months and at year-end" and closing the surgical ward for two weeks each during consultants' leave and at the end of December.