STAFF AT Letterkenny General Hospital are to be asked to consider taking four days of unpaid leave as part of moves to tackle its financial problems.
The Health Service Executive said yesterday that the unpaid leave proposal had been put forward as an alternative to compulsory cuts in job numbers.
Letterkenny General Hospital forms part of the executive’s western region, which is facing a financial deficit of €45 million.
HSE West management has been in talks with trade unions over recent weeks in a bid to introduce cost-saving measures which would minimise job losses and the impact on services.
A confidential consultants' report, commissioned by HSE West and revealed by The Irish Timeslast month, suggested that up to 1,000 temporary staff could be laid off as part of the cost-saving measures.
The trade union Impact said yesterday that HSE management in Letterkenny had initially proposed the idea of compulsory unpaid leave, but that this had been rejected by unions.
However, HSE West yesterday denied that there had ever been any proposal put forward by either local management at Letterkenny General Hospital or elsewhere in the organisation to introduce compulsory four-day unpaid leave for staff.
In a statement, HSE West said “a number of measures are being considered in conjunction with the local trade union representatives in order to reduce the pay bill at Letterkenny General Hospital, in the context of the hospital’s obligation to remain within its budget allocation and the fact that the hospital is currently operating on an overspend”.
“In parallel with these discussions with the trade unions, the hospital manager, Mr Seán Murphy, has indeed run a number of open staff briefings outlining the current financial challenges facing the hospital, and suggested that an alternative to compulsory reduction in staffing levels could be a voluntary acceptance by all staff of four days’ unpaid leave between now and December 31st, 2010.
“Mr Seán Murphy, hospital manager, has confirmed that following discussions at these open briefings, that he does intend to canvass all staff on this third way to meeting service needs within hospital’s resources this year,” the HSE statement said.
Last December the Government rejected proposals put forward by the trade union movement that 12 days’ compulsory unpaid leave would be introduced for staff across the public service as an alternative to pay cuts.
Separately yesterday in the HSE West region, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick could no longer cope with the demands being placed upon it.
The organisation said there were 46 patients at the hospital awaiting access to a designated bed. The union said there were 23 patients in the emergency department on trolleys, 14 in a transit lounge on trolleys, and nine on hospital corridors.
“At the same time there are 80 whole time equivalent nursing vacancies at the hospital and 80 acute beds in the region closed, with plans for a further 55 acute beds to close from next week”.
The organisation also said that HSE plans to close the emergency department at Nenagh General Hospital at weekends had been averted following political intervention.
The HSE said no decision had been made to close or curtail the hours of opening of the current emergency service at the hospital.