Progress slow in Croke Park deal reforms, admits HSE

Ambulance service identified as one area where progress was ‘difficult and slow’

THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has said that less progress has been made in implementing the Croke Park agreement in some parts of the health service than originally planned.

However, the HSE’s national director of human resources, Séan McGrath, said there also continued to be areas “of very positive achievement” under the agreement.

A report submitted to the Department of Health last Friday highlighted the ambulance service as one area where progress had been “difficult and slow”.

The HSE report said that while consultation was continuing, “staff appear resistant to implementing changes that will impact on overtime practices”. It was proposed to use State third parties to finalise the issues.

HSE management is seeking the elimination of restrictive practices in the ambulance service “to include the provision of locum cover for sick leave, call rotation, long distance journeys, overnight stops and any other practice that inhibits the maximum efficiency”.

The report said that capacity issues within the service in relation to the training of staff also represented an obstacle to progress.

A delay in obtaining facilities as well as the recruitment pause were impacting on the progress of reconfiguration of ambulance-control systems.

This development had now been rescheduled to the second quarter of next year.

Mr McGrath’s report used a “traffic light system” of green, amber and red to indicate progress in the implementation of the current action plan for change under the agreement.

It said there appeared to be “an increased number of items being classed as ‘amber’, where the delivery of the action was substantially under way but where the specific target date was not likely to be met, or ‘red’, where there had been no tangible progress to date”.

“These are actions which will need to be focused on and efforts re-intensified on all sides to work through whatever outstanding issues there are.”

The report also said it was clear the recruitment pause in the public service was “having an impact on planned actions, as are the significant budgetary constraints which are in effect across the entire public health service”.

On the positive side, the HSE now anticipates that savings of €7 million would be generated by reform in medical laboratories which involves the introduction of revised rosters and extended working day arrangements.

It said that savings could be €2 million higher than originally expected, while the estimated costs of compensation for staff would be about €7.5 million.

The original target date for implementation of reforms in radiology services of July 2011 was missed. Management and unions had exchanged proposals relating to the extended working day and revised out-of-hours arrangements.

“However, agreement was not reached between the parties and the matter has been referred to the Labour Relations Commission,” the report said.

Meanwhile, employment numbers in the health service continued to fall.In the middle two quarters of the year, staffing numbers reduced by 1,377 or 1.3 per cent. About 1,770 staff had been redeployed or reassigned this year.

The Croke Park deal between the Government and public service unions guarantees that staff will not face further pay cuts or compulsory redundancies until at least 2014 in return for co-operation with change and reform.

All parts of the public service are currently drawing up new updates on the implementation of the agreement for the period between April and September.