Government accused over health workers

Opposition parties have accused the Government of deliberating leaking a report revealing there are almost 6,500 unauthorised workers in the health service in its attempt to justify future job-shedding.

Fine Gael spokeswoman on Health, Olivia Mitchell, said the Government could not have been unaware of such widescale abuse of the system.

“All these jobs did not just suddenly appear. Nor are the health boards operating in a vacuum. The Department of Health knows exactly what is happening at health board level,” she said.

Ms Mitchell said the Government could not shift the blame onto the health boards for these workers.

“The health boards were given money in the run-up to the election which many of them used to take on extra staff. Then you had a series of cutbacks later in the year and health boards were told they had to make savings, that they could only be funded to the approved level of staffing.

“At that stage, many of them had already recruited. I think the Government is now trying to say those posts were unauthorised because they cannot afford to fund them.”

Ms Mitchell said her own health board, the East Coast Area Health Board (ECAHB), had been told it had to save 4m on last year’s money.

“That can mean job-shedding and it’s a good way to justify it. The other health boards are in the same boat,” she said.

The confidential Department of Finance report also revealed that the income tax payer is now contributing more than €6,000 per annum to sustain the health service, which it says has no clear accountability.

Prepared by forensic accounts specialist Niamh Brennan, the audit supports claims extra funding alone will not solve the problems of a service where inpatient bed numbers fell from 11,863 to 11,783 between 1997 and 2002, despite a 12% increase in investment.

Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus called on the Government to publish the full report. She said it was high time the Government accepted responsibility for the shambles the service was in, instead of shifting blame to health boards.

Spokesman for Patient Focus, Dr Tony O’Sullivan, said he believed health boards did not employ workers unnecessarily.

“All those taken on are probably needed. I tend to side with the health boards who have a good understanding of the needs of the community, instead of the Department of Health, which is too far removed.”