THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has told the Government it could shed up to 3,500 jobs next year to live within proposed cutbacks of up to €800 million in its budget. However, the HSE has warned that such job cuts would have a significant impact on services.
The warning is contained in a confidential submission to the Department of Health on the spending estimates for 2010.
Sources said the HSE submission to the Department of Health, sent earlier this week, says that it would not be possible to cut staffing numbers by around 6,000 as proposed in the recent McCarthy report without changes to current public sector employment rules.
It is understood HSE management proposed that it could reduce employment levels by 1,000 through natural attrition and that a further 500 temporary staff could go when their contracts terminated.
It also suggested that up to 500 staff could leave under the Government’s incentivised early retirement scheme. This scheme was suspended in the HSE several months ago as part of a row with unions over redeployment arrangements for personnel who remained on the payroll.
The HSE also proposed that up to 1,500 posts could be removed from the payroll if it did not make appointments in a number of areas which were allocated priority funding by the Government last year. This could include staff for long-stay facilities or in areas such as diabetes or renal services.
Sources said the letter sent to the Department of Health said that a reduction of 3,500 in staffing levels could generate savings of over €100 million in 2010 and about €200 million on a full-year basis.
However, it is understood the HSE told the Department of Health that job cuts on this scale could have significant service implications.
The HSE is concerned that at present it does not have the ability to compulsorily redeploy staff to fill vacancies as they arise.
The HSE submission follows a request from the secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, for it to draw up plans for cuts of between €400 million and €800 million in its budget for next year.
The HSE submission will form part of a document to be presented by the Department of Health to the Department of Finance on spending plans for next year. All Government departments have been told by the Department of Finance to have a list of cuts prepared by tomorrow as part of an overall €3 billion savings package.
Mr Scanlan told the HSE that plans by the Cabinet to reduce the general Government deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by the end of 2013 would require “substantive reductions in expenditure across all areas of the public service”.
Mr Scanlan said HSE senior management should draw on the recommendations of the McCarthy report and “any other appropriate measures” identified within the health authority.