Nurses and midwives will not fill in gaps left by support workers who take up the Government’s voluntary redundancy scheme for health service staff, a trade union warned today.
The new schemes are aimed primarily at managerial and administrative staff in the Health Service Executive (HSE), and in voluntary hospitals and voluntary agencies funded by the executive.
However, in a surprise move, the Government also decided to offer the early retirement and voluntary redundancy schemes to support staff such as porters, cleaners and catering personnel.
Irish Nurses' and Midwifery Organisation (INMO) general secretary Liam Doran said today he has “great concern” about the scheme being offered to support staff.
"Numbers of them could be gone within two months and I'm saying here and now that nurses and midwifery staff will not be doing the work of those grades," he told RTÉ's News at One. "If they vacate their posts and are not replaced that will be a problem for the HSE to manage and administrate.
“The speed at which this plan is being introduced and having to be activated – eight weeks - suggests the HSE doesn’t know where its going to lose its staff from, so in that sense it has potential to leave gaps in the support staff and those gaps will not be filled by nurses and midwives… they are too busy doing their own work.”
Mr Doran also called for the embargo on the filling of nursing and midwifery posts to be lifted straight away.
A spokeswoman for the HSE today said there has been a “steady trickle” of inquiries from staff about the scheme. However, management sources said it was too early to predict the number who would ultimately opt to leave.
Ms Harney suggested that up to 4,000 staff in managerial and administrative grades could leave, while HSE national director of human resources Seán McGrath estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 personnel could depart.
Unions have expressed concern at the tight deadlines for staff to make up their minds on the schemes and at the effect the departure of large numbers of staff could have on services from the start of next year.
Impact said it would seek a better financial package. The union’s national secretary for health Louise O’Donnell also said “services could be badly affected if large-scale staffing reductions were not properly managed”.
Siptu warned that there would be a dispute if the HSE sought to use contract or agency workers to replace full-time staff who left.
Acting head of Siptu’s health division Paul Bell said: “It is another black day for the health service. At the meeting today we received no idea as to how the health service will be maintained with 4,000 fewer staff. There is no coherent plan.”
Fine Gael said that the Government’s voluntary redundancy scheme came two years too late.
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said: “There is no clear plan of provision as to how the services would be reorganised to cope with the sudden loss of 5,000 staff . . . There is no mention of reducing staff numbers within the Minister’s department.”
The Labour Party said it was a good idea to reduce the number of senior management and administrators within the HSE but more clarity on the plan was needed.
The Government has set a limit of €400 million on the amount that can be spent on the schemes. Depending on the level of interest from staff, it is this budget cap that will largely determine the exact numbers to leave.
Under the rules of the schemes, applications from management and administrative staff will be given priority over those from support staff in all cases. Such applications will be “approved automatically”, subject to the overall cost of the schemes not being breached.
The Government has set a deadline of November 19th for staff to apply under the severance schemes, while personnel taking the packages must leave before December 30th.