The trade union Impact is to hold a special conference in February to discuss members' concerns over how health services are run.
Among the issues raised by the union's health and welfare divisional executive committee, which has sought the conference, are that the HSE has displayed an undue reliance on external advisers and has created an impression of an unco-ordinated and ad hoc approach to the management of services.
The conference will consider claims that the HSE was established in a rushed fashion two years ago when structural and other arrangements were not in place, and since then has engaged in a constant process of changing structures and senior personnel.
The conference will also debate "the apparent decision by the HSE not to utilise partnership structures involving management and unions as the principal vehicle to drive the health reform programme".
The conference will also be asked to condemn "the absence of a vision for a health service based on a single system of the highest quality that guarantees timely access to services for everyone".
Delegates will also be asked to deplore the "drive towards privatisation" and in particular the controversial policy of developing private hospitals on the campuses of public facilities.
The conference will also call for an end to employment restrictions "that involve every job to be filled being subjected to a bureaucratic, centrally-controlled process".
It will also propose the condemnation of "the targeting of administrative support posts, which is interfering with the ability to replace staff at short notice, making the management and delivery of services impossible in some cases ".
Impact is the second staff association in the health sector to express frustration at how services are being managed by the HSE. Hospital consultants are to consider a motion of no confidence in the HSE at a special conference next month.
Impact national secretary Kevin Callinan said the union had given the HSE plenty of time since its establishment and the concerns raised now had to be seen in that context. "Members will judge in the early part of 2007 whether the HSE is going to be able to deliver on its promise."
The conference will be held on Wednesday, February 7th, in Jurys Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin.
