Cork INMO representative 'sceptical' about end to recruitment freeze
Healthcare unions have written to the HSE expressing concern over the lack of consultation over the proposed strategy, which they say fails to meet the HSE’s obligations under the Employees (Provision of Information and consultation) Act 2006.
A Cork INMO representative has said that he is “sceptical” about the end to the Health Service Executive recruitment freeze as unions claim over 2,000 posts are set to be guillotined nationally.
Earlier this month, it was widely reported that the HSE recruitment freeze introduced last October had been brought to a close.
However, the INMO has raised concern about the potential impacts of the HSE’s new Pay and Numbers Strategy which it says includes an introduction of recruitment ceilings that cap staffing.
Speaking to , the INMO assistant director of industrial relations, Cork’s Colm Porter told The Echo, “the cap would be a concern to us”.
“It appears to us that the staffing levels are based on an arbitrary number, but there is a government-agreed framework that was to be rolled out which dictates what safe staffing looks like.
“They’re calling it the embargo being lifted, but we wouldn’t be convinced - if they haven’t taken the staffing framework into consideration, that’s a clear shift in government policy.”
Healthcare unions have written to the HSE expressing concern over what they described as a lack of consultation over the proposed strategy, which they say fails to meet the HSE’s obligations under the Employees (Provision of Information and consultation) Act 2006.
The Staff of the ICTU Healthcare Unions met with the HSE in recent days regarding the strategy.
The unions have claimed that under the proposed plan all vacant posts as of the 31st of December 2023 have now been suppressed, saying that this is “placing the HSE staff under considerable pressure and gives rise to significant concerns in relation to patient safety.”
Responding to a query on recruitment ceilings, a HSE spokesperson told The Echo that there is a new approved maximum staff figure for the HSE, adding that this excludes disability services, pre-registration nursing and midwifery students, and 76 special assignment temporary posts.
They said, “Each of the six HSE Health Regions and each national service will be provided with its own specified number of WTEs and can within that approved number, replace, recruit and prioritise. This allocation process is underway.”
The HSE South West, which is made up of Cork and Kerry, “are currently working to understand the number of staff we are in a position to recruit.”
The HSE spokesperson added, “We will be working hard to reduce the number of staff unavailable due to sickness absence and to increasingly improve our efficiency.”
Mr Porter said that the union is aware that the level of sickness absence is high adding “we’d be ive of trying to rectify that and making sure people get back to work when fit to do so, but a lot of that is down to the environment people are working in.
“We know our are suffering from burnout, levels of stress are high - they’re working short-staffed in services that are increasingly under pressure, so it’s all very logical that this would lead to increased sickness absence.”
The new system “provides greater oversight when responding to the needs of the population” said the HSE, but Mr Porter said, “risk, patient safety, all these factors need to be incorporated into what you’re allowed to recruit, if the dependency of patients on a ward changes, so should the allocation of staff.
"On the ground, until such time as staff start to see vacancies being filled, more staff on wards and in communities, our are going to remain fairly sceptical,” he concluded.
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