Union talks on ‘massive’ HSE cutbacks

UNIONS representing health workers are to meet in emergency session today to decide on a joint response to the Health Service Executive’s massive cutbacks announcement.

Groups including the Irish Nurses Organisation, Irish Medical Organisation and the health sections of SIPTU and Impact will gather in a hotel outside Dublin as opposition mounts to the plan they say was sprung on them without warning.

They have also sought an urgent meeting of the staff and employers industrial relations forum, the Health Service National Joint Council, to discuss the implications of the plan which calls for an immediate freeze on recruitment in all hospitals and health facilities as well as a ban on new temporary and agency workers to cover absent staff.