UP TO 1,000 HSE staff on temporary contracts in the west of the country could be let go as part of planned cutbacks aimed at tackling an €80 million financial deficit in the region, the trade union Siptu has claimed.
Siptu said that the HSE’s cutback plan for the region was based on the recommendations contained in a secret report commissioned earlier this year from a UK-based consultancy firm.
The HSE last night confirmed that it had commissioned a report from consultants Mott MacDonald to assist management in dealing with cost-containment issues in the region.
John Hennessy, regional director of operations for HSE West, said the report produced a range of options including staffing numbers, improvements in backroom functions and more efficiency in procurement. He said there were no target figures for reductions in the number of staff and that temporary contracts will be examined carefully when they expire.
If the estimate of 1,000 contract staff to be let go is accurate, it would be a far higher figure than has been put forward so far.
Last week the trade union Impact suggested that 300 temporary staff in HSE West could be at risk of losing their jobs while Siptu put the figure at 400.
Siptu’s senior health organiser Paul Bell last night said that the “secret” report should be published immediately.
He said HSE management was going out of its way to undermine the gains set out in the recent Croke Park agreement governing public service pay and reform.
Siptu is to ballot its members in the HSE in the west in protest at the cutbacks planned by management to tackle the financial deficit.
Both Siptu and Impact have asked the Labour Relations Commission to intervene in the row over the planned HSE cuts in the west.
Mr Bell said that neither staff nor their representatives had been provided with a copy of the consultants’ report and that this was also in breach of agreements with HSE management.
The HSE said last week that it was entering into one of the most financially challenging times that we have ever seen within Irish health services
An internal HSE review has found that the ban on staff recruitment in the HSE western region is having a bigger impact on frontline nursing services than on management posts.
The report produced by directors of nursing in the region said that the number of whole-time equivalent (WTE) nursing and midwifery posts in HSE West fell by over 380 in the two years ending December 31st, 2009,
It said that the Government’s moratorium on recruitment had hit frontline services hardest with 67 per cent of vacancies occurring in this area, as opposed to 33 per cent from management and specialist grades.
Siptu National Nursing Official Louise O’Reilly said: “The situation has worsened significantly in the seven months that have passed since the data was collected on which the survey was based”.
A HSE spokesman said unsustainable gaps had opened up in some areas but that the provisions of the Croke Park agreement may provide greater flexibility to move staff around.