3,800 taken on despite staff ban

HEALTH boards took on 3,800 too many staff in one year in an open flouting of recruitment bans laid down by the Department of Health.

Pay and pay-related expenditure is the biggest cost in the Department of Health’s budget, yet the Comptroller and Auditor General’s latest reports showed huge deficiencies in the controlling and monitoring of staff numbers.

An analysis of the staff employed in the health sector at the end of 2001 showed that 3,800 extra staff had been hired in direct opposition to department guidelines.