PLANNED OPERATIONS may have to be postponed as a result of the impact of more than 3,000 early retirements from the HSE, Minister for Health James Reilly has said.
Dr Reilly conceded the Government was somewhat “disadvantaged” because the incentivised retirement scheme did not target specific workers.
“If one of the things we have to do is slow down on elective in-patient procedures for a short period . . . we will increase our productivity towards the middle of the year to catch up again.”
It is likely that elective operations such as cataract removal and hip replacements will be affected if operations are delayed arising from the skills shortfall.
Dr Reilly conceded the general nature of the scheme may have been a shortcoming. “Obviously we’re a wee bit disadvantaged insofar as we can’t dictate who goes, whereas with a more targeted voluntary redundancy scheme you can.”
However, he described as “well advanced” plans to address the impact of the scheme on the health sector. He was speaking at Mount Carmel Hospital in Dublin yesterday.
Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the Minister’s concession on delayed operations would inevitably lead to longer waiting lists.
“He has known for a year that a large number of retirements were coming . . . and he has failed spectacularly to make contingency plans.”
Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the departures would devastate the health services. “Last week Mr Reilly claimed there was a ‘dynamic contingency plan’ . . . such a plan clearly does not exist.”
The number of applications for early retirement in health and education has increased dramatically in the past month. They make up the bulk of the 8,118 public servants who have signalled they will retire at the end of this month to retain higher pension benefits.
The latest figures show 3,817 staff have either already left the health service or are planning to do so by the end of the month. About 2,000 are understood to have left since last September with about 1,800 due to leave within the next few weeks.
The HSE has not produced a breakdown of those leaving. However official figures for the Dublin/Mid Leinster region of the HSE show 888 staff have either left or are planning to leave and 356 of these are nurses. Acute hospitals in the region will lose 330 staff, services for the elderly will lose 150 while primary care will have 125 departures. The mental health service in the region will have 114 departures.
Some 2,000 applications for early retirement have been made in education. The number of applicants has almost doubled in the past month.
The applicants from other sectors are: Civil Service (1,021); local authorities (859); Defence Forces (241); and Garda (297).
