Ex-ambulance chief is STILL a HSE employee
He left to take a plum job down under – while on a HSE career break
THE former Irish ambulance chief who has just resigned as head of an Australian ambulance service at least has the option of coming back home – as it turns out he is still an employee of the HSE.
Robert Morton was thought to have left his €100,000-a-year job as director of the National Ambulance Service in 2013 – just two years after being appointed – to take up a role Down Under.
Last week he announced his resignation as chief executive officer of the South Australia Ambulance Service, just 18 months into the job.
And now the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal Mr Morton is on a career break from the HSE – and can return to work with them if he wishes.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said: ‘Mr Robert Morton is on a career break currently.
‘The HSE does not make contact with individuals until the end of their career break.’
Asked how long the break was to last for, the spokeswoman added: ‘The HSE cannot comment on an individual employee’s terms and conditions of employment and leave arrangement.’
Under the terms of HSE career breaks, staff must give at least three months’ notice of wishing to return to work. The career break can be of any length up to five years.
The spokeswoman did not respond to queries as to whether Mr Morton will return to work at the ambulance headquarters.
Mr Morton had been with the South Australia Ambulance Service since July 29, 2013.
At his base in Adelaide, South Australia, Mr Morton released a statement last week saying: ‘I have today announced my resignation from SA Ambulance Service for personal reasons, with my last day being 24 April 2015.
‘I will continue to devote all of my energies into ensuring SA Ambulance Service delivers its usual high-quality patient care to the community.’
This came as a surprise to some paramedics in the Australian service as the day before Mr Morton had circulated his threeyear plan for the organisation in a newsletter.
Phil Palmer, general secretary of the Ambulance Employees Association, said the union has been locked in disagreement with Mr Morton since the start of his tenure.
‘It’s the only decision he’s made that we are happy with, the one to leave.
‘All I can say is on the Tuesday he put out a really long newsletter to the members about his plans for the next three years, and the very next day he resigned,’ he said.
Mr Palmer said: ‘He has done little apart from telling people that things are inferior in Australia and he was going to modernise it, and things are better in Southern Ireland – when our members knew that wasn’t the case from researching. He was telling people they were too highly qualified, they were too well paid – all the sorts of things workers love to hear.’
The Irish Mail on Sunday in April last year reported increasing resistance in Adelaide to Mr Morton’s plans to introduce ‘rapid response vehicles’ to the state. Paramedics feared solo responders would be unable to cope with a crisis in an area 10 times the size of Ireland.
Last January, the union began organising a ‘Stop Work’ action. They had had already met with health department officials about this, according to Mr Palmer, when Mr Morton made his announcement.
Spokesmen for the South Australia Ambulance Services and the South Australia Health Service did not respond to queries this week.
In September Mr Morton said in the service’s annual report: ‘I greatly look forward to continuing my participation in the evolution of the organisation.’
Career break can be
up to five years