Why 1,800 HSE recruits won’t boost numbers
THE HSE appeared to be at odds last night with the Finance Minister over how many new staff will be recruited to bolster the country’s health service over the coming year.
In his Budget speech in October, Minister Paschal Donohoe said he was allocating almost €685million to the health service. Among other things, the money would help recruit new staff for the health service, he said. He said: ‘The allocation includes an additional 1,800 staff aimed at a range of frontline services across the acute, mental health, disability, primary and community care sectors.’
But senior HSE managers yesterday indicated that many of the promised healthcare workers would not be new staff. At the launch of the HSE 2018 service plan for the year ahead, a HSE HR executive said the strategy was to replace employees who have left the HSE and to hire agency workers who already work in the health system. Rosarii Mannion, national HR director with the HSE, said: ‘The 1,800 is referring to one in, one out, so they are direct replacements. And also recruitment posts that are currently in process and agency conversion.’ When challenged on the fact that replacing retired staff does not equate to additional roles, Ms Mannion said this was ‘correct’.
Asked where Mr Donohoe’s commitment to recruiting 1,800 additional staff stood, HSE Director General Tony O’Brien said the number of permanent HSE staff would increase, but he appeared to acknowledge that many of these would be agency staff given permanent contracts. ‘Within the overall plan there is a specific objective for what we call agency conversion so we do expect the number of permanently employed staff at the end of 2018 to stand higher by a than the numbers at the end of 2017,’ he said.
Louise O’Reilly, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for health, last night claimed Paschal Donohoe had appeared to mislead the Dáil on Budget Day. ‘He led the Dáil to believe that 1,800 additional personnel would be recruited,’ she said. ‘It’s nothing like that.’
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