News Release: from IMPACT Trade Union Thurs 18th July

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday July 23, 2002 11:46 by Admin staff

Health Staff cuts will hit services, says IMPACT

IMPACT Trade Union has revealed that the Dept. of Health has told health boards and agencies across the country to cut the number of administrative and managerial staff.

IMPACT Trade Union revealed last thursday 18th that the Dept. of Health has told health boards and agencies across the country to cut the number of administrative and managerial staff. the union said it had seen letters to a number of health agencies, which proved that the Department wanted to cut existing staff numbers rather than simply slow expansion, as the Minister for Health has suggested.

IMPACTS national secretary for Health Kevin Callinan said cuts would inevitably lead to reductions in levels and quality of services. "The likely outcome is that doctors, nurses and other health professionals will end up spending more time on administration and clerical work instead of treating patients. The government is wrong to suggest you can slash administrative and clerical staff without hitting services. Most administrative staff are dealing directly with the public or providing vital support to front-line care staff", he said.

Mr Callinan, whose Union represents over 20,000 health workers including health professionals, nurses, care workers and administrative staff, said he was seeking information about the criteria for the cuts. "I want to know whether the Department has made any assessment of the likely impact on services or if they have simply plucked a figure out of the air to please Charlie McCreevy", he said. Mr Callinan said IMPACT would resist any cuts in services.

Mr Callinan said the Government saw clerical, administrative and managerial staff as a soft target. Administrative staff made up around 15 percent of all health workers,a figure that includes significant numbers of front-line carers like community welfare officers, childcare workers and accident and emergency staff. It also includes staff in crucial support services like admissions and appointments, medical records, IT, human resource management, and recruitment.

"Administrative and managerial staff make up a small portion of the total but they perform vital front-line and support roles. Consultants, nurses and other health professionals are calling for more support and this move flies in the face of the health strategy, which identified the need to strengthen managerial structures in many areas. It's simply a fiction to pretend you can cut staffing without impacting on the level and quality of services", he said.

IMPACT said it was wrong to portray the health service as over-managed. The number of administrative managers was small compared to other parts of the public service, although health service managers had an extremely difficult job co-ordinating a growing range of complex services and had high levels of public accountability.