THE HEALTH Service Executive has warned that elective surgery may be postponed in some hospitals as a result of a possible shortage of nurses supplied by agencies.
Nursing unions have advised members who work for agencies providing services to the HSE not to make themselves available on lower rates of pay which were introduced by the health authority from yesterday.
The HSE said yesterday Cavan General Hospital had cancelled some elective or non-urgent surgery for today as a precautionary measure due to a possible shortage of agency nurses. A HSE spokeswoman said other hospitals were considering their position last night.
Nursing unions said yesterday some services were affected in Cork, in the midlands and in Limerick. At Cork University Maternity Hospital, 14 of the 16 agency midwives due to work yesterday made themselves unavailable for duty .
The HSE said patient services had not been affected as management had redeployed staff from other parts of the hospital. It also said some nurse managers had also been called in to discharge duties.
Last night the HSE said there were no risks to patient safety but that it would continue to closely monitor the situation and would put contingency arrangements in place as required.
“While the vast majority of agency staff were working today, in areas where some agency staff did not present for work, hospitals put in place arrangements to ensure that services could continue to be delivered for patients.”
The HSE said the advice given by unions to nurses appeared “to be part of a planned protest to disrupt patient services in certain parts of the country”.
The row stems from moves by the HSE to put in place a new system for securing staff provided by agencies including nurses, non-consultant doctors and other healthcare personnel. The HSE says the measures will generate up to €40 million in savings.
Unions have argued that as part of the new arrangements, payments to the nurses provided by the agencies will be reduced significantly in some cases. Agencies said the new rates of pay were broadly in line with those paid to staff directly employed by the HSE.
Up to now nurses provided by agencies were paid the 10th point on the staff nurse pay scale, regardless of experience.
Under the revised plans, nurses with less than two years’ experience are to be paid at the minimum point of the new lower entry scale introduced. Other staff will be paid on the fifth point of the existing scale.
Unions have said agency nurses will also receive reduced payments for working at night, on Sundays and on public holidays
New talks aimed at finding a settlement to the row will take place tomorrow.
Nurse on Call, one of the agencies which won a contract from the HSE under its new arrangement to supply agency nurses, said last night it had 800 staff working yesterday. It said the vast majority of staff had made themselves available.
The managing director of Nurse on Call, Catherine Kennedy Arnold, said some localised issues did emerge, including in Cork and parts of the midlands.
She said as part of the procurement process, the HSE tender documents identified the maximum rates that the health authority was prepared to pay for agency staff.
“Agencies were invited to tender at or below those rates. We tendered at the maximum rates for nurses and did not offer any additional reduction on the maximum rates that the HSE were prepared to pay,” she added.