Sir, – Your report about staff numbers in the HSE (“HSE staffing strategy will see 2,000 posts abolished and affect patient safety, unions say”, News, July 22nd) suggests that its chief executive and the Minister for Health are both looking through the wrong end of the telescope, focusing on the providers rather than the patients.
Rather than crude, and frankly meaningless, controls of total staff numbers, surely current and projected patient needs ought to be the starting point, with assurance that the right staff with the right skills are available in the right place at the right time?
If that results in an unaffordable total cost then decision-makers, and the public, should clearly understand what outcomes need to be ceded in order to meet budget constraints. Is this too much to ask of the HSE and the Department of Health? – Yours, etc,
SEAN RYAN,
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Mountshannon,
Co Clare.