Impact warns of unrest over changes

Staff concerns: Constant meddling with new health service structures since they were put in place almost a year ago is causing…

Staff concerns:Constant meddling with new health service structures since they were put in place almost a year ago is causing huge concern among thousands of health service staff and could ultimately lead to industrial unrest, a prominent trade union official said yesterday.

Kevin Callinan, national secretary of Impact, cites as an example the fact that 10 hospital networks were set up under the Health Service Executive (HSE), but now the HSE's chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, has plans to reduce the number of networks to four, though managers of most networks have already been appointed.

Mr Callinan said the plan to change the number "was announced at a meeting for senior managers when one person was four hours in the job" as a hospital network manager and had moved location to take up the post.

"There are obviously very serious concerns for some individuals affected from the point of view of their career.

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"They have all come through a competition process and a number have relocated for their posting.

"This is being watched by our membership generally to see how people are going to be treated," he said.

Impact, which represents more than 26,000 healthcare workers, met Prof Drumm on Friday last to outline its concerns.

It said members were not against change but after so much change over the past year or two there was an urgent need now for stability in the sector.

There had been no consultation with his union about the proposed change to hospital networks, Mr Callinan said.

He said while he supported Prof Drumm's views on employment ceilings and health service administrators, he "laid it on the line" to Prof Drumm that members felt parts of an agreement reached by the HSE with Impact last year were being set aside and that any breaches would lead to serious industrial relations problems.

"People are looking at how this is all handled and managed to see if their co-operation should continue to be forthcoming," he warned.

Furthermore, he said that while on the surface "things seem to be moving on normally", the continuous changes had resulted in a "huge degree of switch-off out of the system and I think we are going to pay a huge price for this down the road".

He said he had been "swamped by exasperated members" over the past month who complained that bits of the new structure put in place now seemed "to be up for grabs again".

"It's quite worrying that it's proving very difficult to nail things down.

"In a number of cases, organisational structures have been changed two to three times since last year. . . some people appointed to a position ended up in different roles. . . the whole thing is chaotic," he said.

"I would only be reflecting what is a commonly held view within huge swathes of people . . . the general sense that there isn't a clear direction is hugely damaging. The need now is for stability," he added.

A spokesman for the HSE said Prof Drumm had a very constructive meeting with Impact on Friday.

"Among key items discussed was work being done by the HSE to simplify the way patients access services and streamline the way these services are delivered and this work is ongoing and will include discussions with senior staff.

"Both sides agreed this change process needs to be both structured and involve significant investment of time and resources from all sides," he said.

He added that the HSE wanted to ensure all uncertainty was minimised and it intended to have a "serious and significant" communications strategy in place in January and would "approach this in a participative fashion with Impact and the other trade unions".