Midwives to vote for second time on HSE offer

MIDWIVES will be asked to vote for a second time on an offer they have already rejected to co-operate with the opening of a new maternity hospital.

Crucially, however, the offer will contain updated details of the exact number of midwives available to staff the new service at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH). If midwives reject the offer, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has warned CUMH may be put to a different use. Refusal to co-operate will also lead to withdrawal of up to 220 employment offers to staff recruited to the new service. The HSE has set March 31 as the “final date” for commissioning the hospital.

The INO said it expected to be in a position to advise the HSE what its midwives’ decision is by tomorrow.

Last Saturday, the new €75 million hospital missed its opening deadline when midwives refused to transfer from the city’s existing maternity hospitals on the basis that CUMH would be understaffed. An offer made by the HSE on Friday to entice them to co-operate with the move included:

Confirmation of acting promotional staff to permanent status in the higher grade without competition.

Enhanced overtime rates for staff who agree to work additional hours during the first six to eight weeks to allow time to recruit extra staff. A high-level group, involving union reps and senior hospital management, has undertaken this drive.

Training, including emergency drills, and induction/orientation programmes will be run this week to familiarise staff with their new environment.

Protected funding in training and education for midwives who transfer.

This last concession will be in the form of an “education grant” per midwife who co-operates with the move. The size of the grant will be decided in the future by an independent chairman.

Yesterday the INO admitted it has requested as late as last Friday a €1,000 per-head one-off payment for midwives as a sweetener.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said it was a last-ditch effort “to get people to go”, but was not included in the final offer to midwives which the INO recommended its members accept. The offer was rejected.

Yesterday, Health Minister Mary Harney reiterated her belief that the dispute is about money. She also repeated the HSE warning that CUMH would be put to another use if it fails to open next Saturday.

“Certainly, over the next few days, if we are not in a position to open the facility next Saturday, then the HSE will have to look at an alternative use for that facility. It is not going to lie idle. There is no doubt about that,” she said.

The minister said 146 additional midwives had been appointed to the new facility, over and above what was in Cork at the moment operating out of three different sites. The HSE promised 375 staff to open the new facility, but between 40 and 60 posts are vacant. The HSE has offered to open a reduced service with 315 staff, a figure which hospital consultants say is adequate. Negotiations continue today. The Patient information line is 1850 742 628.