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THE HSE’S PLAN TO cut €130 million from health spending over the rest of this year has been heavily criticised this evening.
The health service announced earlier that the cuts were being made in order to met its budget targets for 2012 as set by the government and the Troika. Announcing the cuts, the HSE acknowledged that it is “inevitable” they will have some impact on frontline service delivery.
Responding to news that the HSE intends to reduce the provision of Home Help services by 5.5 per cent as part of these cuts, trade union SIPTU said it will “vigorously oppose” the plan.
“What this [reduction] means in reality is that the elderly and other vulnerable people who depend on these services are to suffer in order to satisfy a book-keeping exercise which has already proven to be an abject failure,” said SIPTU organiser Ted Kenny.
Kenny said that the planned cuts are “in addition to a further financial attack on hospital services that will result in a reduction in the number of beds in wards and have an extremely adverse effect on the level of care provided to the general public”.
“The health care system is being pushed beyond breaking point. SIPTU members will not stand idly by and allow this attack on the sick and vulnerable to proceed.”
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil spokesperson on health Bill Kelleher called on Minister for Health James Reilly to communicate with the public about these cuts.
“People across the country are wondering, where is their Minister for Health and who is in charge?” he asked.
“People do not want to hear about these cuts from the HSE. This is Minister Reilly’s responsibility and he has a duty to explain what is going on so that people know what to expect.”
Sinn Féin health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin accused the government of putting “the diktats of the Troika before the old and the sick and people with disabilities in Irish society”.
“The further reduction in spending on the use of agency staff and on overtime will throw our public hospitals into ever deeper crisis,” the TD added. “The use of agency staff and of overtime have been made necessary by the continuing recruitment freeze and these further cuts will now see more hospital beds, wards and operating theatres closed across the country and longer waiting times and greater misery for patients.”
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try cutting the rediculous wages the elite get at the top of the food chain and start protecting the frontline
Agreed Philip, but that would mean that we would have to become a democratic society. The oligarchs and the plutocrats would fight tooth and nail against any such proposal though. One problem amongst many others, is that they have such a huge mountain of money, to bribe , to coerce, to buy everybody and anybody, that even though we are in the majority, that the odds are always stacked in their favour. Still, I’m hopeful.
Philip you are right. If the senior staff and the Bed Managers(A made up job if you ask me) took a 10% cut, they will still be paid a great deal, but money would be saved, but no, the consensus is to make the nurses work harder for less.
I think if the HSE was a private company, it would be a dead duck, it is run wrong, and needs overhauling, I think if Matrons were brought back, the cleanliness issues would be sorted and Matron would keep the place in top order. But there are too many people with jobs that have no meaning. And while these people deserve to have work, they need to be working to make the service work well. They need to earn their wage, not hide behind Croke Park.
Well rant over, and peace out.
I can live without the Unions preaching about this being a ‘book keeping exercise’.
The HSE is way over budget, cutbacks have to be made somewhere. Those are facts, not a book keeping exercise. The Unions will make damn sure that someone other than their members suffer. If that ends up being patients I don’t see them having a problem with that.
Yeah let people die their no relation of mine money must be saved_ it’s about time people started thinking before jumping to anti public service rants if loads of money was there to be made a private enterprise would be there already it’s simple if the government need to pay then it’s needs to pay if the subvention is paid to public service , semi state or “private enterprise” it’s the same money
Being in the union is useless to home helps. 7 years or more waiting on a contract of employment, and thats why they can treat home helps any way they want. Did you know that home help hours have already been cut by 50% in some cases? Thats one persons wages cut in half at the stroke of a pen. Do you think that is fair?
have you any idea what its like to work on an acute medical ward where there are more patients than you safely care for? that is the reality of budget cuts? most nurses work through their breaks over their 12 shifts. budget cuts are not some esoteric exercise. the Irish health service is meat grinder for patients and frontline staff.
“an extremely adverse effect on the level of care provided to the general public”. Let’s not beat about the bush here what that statement means is that people will die. An already over streached system is being hacked back to the point where it can’t function, No staff, No equipment, No maintenence, Closed wards the few frontliners left working past the point of exhaustion in an enviroment that is already unsafe. People will die. The goverment know this but will still implement their masters orders. This makes them responsable for every death that results from these cuts, It is nothing less than premeditated murder. And “I was just following orders” is no longer an excuse.
What Fran said
Its a shambles. I brought my girlfriend to the A&E one night when she was screaming in pain as her chrons (dont know how to spell it) came back and were sitting there waiting for 10 hours, here in England I had a gash on my head and had it sewn up after a 20 minute wait.
By the way that wasnt a dig at the staff. There was one doctor there the whole time, in the capital. Very sad!
70 % of the HSE bill is wages. a cut across the board would save money and avoid services being lost completely. the weakest will suffer most like the carers, no sign of Reilly of course and he is now making harney look competent
Funnily enough it is not the Minister who is overspending and the HSE have clearly shown how inadequate they are for the task. To accept a Budget for a new accounting period and only wake up to the reality of massive shortfalls against targets in mid year is unforgivable. With seventy per cent of their spend fixed by way of salaries the overspend is occurring in the smallest segment of their budget and is narrow enough to be subject to rigid control. In this mess I feel sorry for Dr Reilly as he has a pathetic Management Team under his control and heads should roll fast and furiously.
You are completely missing the point, Mick. The problem area is wages and salaries. Any private business that spent 70% of its budget on wages would be out of business fast. The problem is the Croke Park agreement.
i work frontline and we have suffered cuts adter cuts!! its baffles me as to wgmhy there is so many admin staff sittin around on their high wages and they dnt get cut!! start with the senior administration staff and the likes and then work ur way down if there is further cuts needed!! u cut home help and all these other services and patient care gets compromised!! how in gods name can ppl c this as ok?? wudnt like a loved one of mine getting ill anytime soon as this is only gonna get worse!!!!! damn government!!!
Bronagh, you seem to be suggesting that the Croke Park agreement be torn up by allowing middle management in the HSE to suffer wage cuts. If more honest, hardworking frontline and lower paid staff came out against Croke Park we would really see that the emperor has no clothes. Croke Park is protecting the 50k to 200k per year staff that our broke health service cannot afford. The choice is simple, keep cutting services to elderly sick people so that Mary in Accounts can earn 55k per year for a 35hr week OR make Mary work 39hrs for 50k and stop cutting frontline services. Mary will still have a guaranteed job with a gold standard pension, but the latter choice involves a government with balls to tear up Brian Cowan’s Croke Park Treaty, something we do not have.
what the hell is going on in the health systems finances that always seems to affect vulnerable people? surely the priority is to protect frontline services, not underfund them?
Ruth the problem is paying for the huge amount of unnessecery MBAs in middle and uper management. And they are the ones who decide where the money goes.
That’s the spirit- head in the sand thinking yet again from the unions
We have a system here where glorified delivery men (Porters) have more power than consultants, go Ireland!!!
Maybe if EVERYBODY paid at A+E, not just those of us with no medical cards who may have to attend once in a blue moon it might go towards easing the problem. How can you have a system where half pay and half don’t yet have the same service for everyone….It appears to be many of the same medical card holding “frequent flyers” clogging up our ambulances and emergency departments week in, week out…..
are you seriously suggesting that its the medical card system that could save ?130m? Its the mis-management of the Health Systems finances that is at the root of the problem.
the home help services keeps vulnerable people within their own home and community, it is cost effective and a lot cheaper than nursing home care,
the home help gets paid per client and does not get wages for travel between clients. this means that visiting a client for thirty minutes takes an hour with travel , that means the home help gets paid 7 euro for this.
now the HSE wants to introduce 15 minute visits to clients, thank God we have the union to fight to protect us.
Correct me if I’m wrong but is the whole idea of overtime in a 24/7 service not ridiculous? From my experience in my local hospital, the actual frontline staff, Eg. A&E, Maternity, Cardiac care, Icu etc are understaffed and completely overworked! I think “frontline” is a phrase that is being used by unions and journalists way too much! Not everybody who works in the public service is frontline!
No? If I work over 40 hours a week, do I not deserve to get paid for what I work?
What people need to understand is that it’s not admin staff getting paid overtime. The vast bulk of it is being paid to Medics who end up working 60, 70, 80 hours a week. Fine, the HSE will not pay them their overtime, but their relevant unions will fight for it, and rightly so. It’s not the medics fault that the service is understaffed and over budget.
HSE strangled by overpaid bureauacy
Hit the defenceless people with the cuts as per usual
Too many clip boards in control !
This is absolute madness cutting 50% of agency staff for one thing. I know of one hospital where 35 of the front line admin staff are agency. That’s the reception staff, the people who check you in when you arrive at A&E, at X-ray, for your out patient appointment etc. only 6 permanent HSE staff work in these positions in this hospital. So just imagine the chaos if 17 of these staff are removed. In the same hospital there are a large number of agency nurses, cleaners, ward assistants etc. Due to the ban on public recruitment the positions can’t be filled by appointing some of these people to HSE jobs. Yet it costs more to employ the agency staff as a percentage of each staff wage has to be paid to the agency for supplying the service. There are savings to be made in cases like this which won’t affect the patients care. Yet James Reilly refuses to even acknowledge that this is the case. He’d much prefer to cut home care for the elderly etc. And he calls himself a doctor!!
100% correct Sean. The government would rather give people huge lump sums to go rather than try and negotiate wages! Cowardly bastards. Can you imagine a large private sector company taking this approach to cost cutting?
Read yesterday that 125,000 new health cards were given out in 2011 WTF ?!
Why cut agency staff further when it has already been severely cut and forces staff in the health care sector out of the country!the senior management in the HSE are overpaid and the government need to do their due diligence on this matter
Anyone like to attempt at listing the jobs deemed ‘frontline ‘ ?
Of course cuts must be made – However, let me offer one piece of advice – an outside body of managers should make the cuts, including a rigourous assessment of the top tier of HSE management first.
From this outsider’s perspective, the Health Service in Ireland appears to have been badly managed and has let down the people of Ireland.
It seems only right that an outside inspectorate should make cuts a tthe decision making level first. The moritorium on hiring staff seems to have resulted in excessive and dangerous levels of overtime for inhouse staff and the gross overspend on agency staff, resulting in a lack of standards, best practice and continuity. This continuity is particularly important for the elderly and the vulnerable.
Come on HSE – time for a clean sweep – but start at the ceiling and work down. It’s always the best way to clean you know. This recession has given you the chance to make something much better. Don’t miss the opportunity.
The cutting of home help is false economy. They should be putting more money into this, not less. It surely has to cost far more money to keep someone in hospital or in a nursing home than it does to have someone call around to get them out of bed. I would love if someone did the math on this.
I posted a suggestion regarding access to ambulance and a and e and it has vanished into the ether !
Whoops .. It’s on the other page on the same issue. Apologies
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