TALKS WILL begin today at the Labour Relations Commission in a bid to avert a possible dispute over plans by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to centralise the processing of applications for medical cards from locations around the country to an office in Dublin.
The HSE is seeking to move a small number of staff based at Rathdown Road in Dublin to Finglas from Monday as part of the first phase of the programme.
The HSE said that medical card applications are currently processed in around 100 locations and that the centralisation of services could generate savings of €10 million and free up resources.
The health authority said jobs, and terms and conditions, would be maintained. Staff currently providing medical card services would be offered retraining.
However, trade union Impact said the plan represented “a sinister HSE agenda” to save money by making it harder for eligible people to obtain medical cards.
The union said the recent move to centralise applications for medical cards by people over 70 had “resulted in long delays, mistakes and poor response times”.
It said the HSE had failed to engage with it on the plan. However, the health authority has strongly denied this and said it held talks for several months.
Impact members have voted to take industrial action in the event of the HSE seeking compulsory redeployment. Union sources said that strike action could be triggered if the HSE moved to discipline members who refused to deploy to the location in Finglas.
The row comes as the HSE is expected to look at greater staff flexibility to save money. Senior HSE figures believe the introduction of compulsory redeployment could require the Government to introduce legislation to overcome existing contractual terms.