Health retirements ‘won’t hurt patients’

Health Minister James Reilly says patients should not suffer as a result of staff exiting the health service.

He accepted, however, there could be problems if too many people left the service and if the situation was not properly dealt with. “That’s self-evident. It doesn’t mean it is going to happen and I am going to make sure it doesn’t happen,” he said.

Mr Reilly, who was speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday, said the HSE had assured him it had a contingency plan. “We have a dynamic contingency plan — it has to be dynamic because the information changes,” he said.

While his department was aware of the current number of people that had applied to retire to date, he accepted it could fluctuate.

During a Dáil debate on Wednesday, the minister pointed out that by the end of February, 3,700 people will have retired.

Mr Reilly told the House the exodus from the service represented a significant challenge for the health system but it would still have more than 100,000 staff.

Yesterday, he criticised a senior doctor at the Mid-Western Maternity Hospital in Limerick who warned of fatalities if the HSE failed to replace the 47 midwives leaving the hospital this month. Mr Reilly said according to the figures he had, the jobs affected were 16.5 whole-time equivalents — the number of working hours that represents one full-time employee over a fixed period.

He said the hospital had a contingency plan to deal with midwives leaving the hospital and it had been outlined to him by its manager, Ann Doherty.

He said the plan that was there was to deal with the current situation at the hospital but accepted that it might change.

“I am very comfortable that we can replace the people who are leaving and there is a plan there to do it,” he said.

Mr Reilly reiterated comments by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin that it was up to each hospital area manager in the public sector to have the contingency plan for his or her area.

Independent Waterford TD John Halligan said there was concern about the future of Waterford Regional Hospital that served half a million people across the South-East.

He pointed out that the hospital faced cuts of up to €14 million, the departure of up to 70 nurses, the closure of three of its eight operating theatres, a surgical ward and a number of in-patient and out-patient beds.