Job cutbacks impose a cure worse that the original illness

THE context in which a story is set is often as relevant as the story itself. The latest health service budget overspend scandal is a clear case in point.

With cutbacks at the top of the Government agenda, Thursday night’s news that the health service was €179m in the red for the first half of this year came at just the right time to legitimise the latest jobs cull.

Yesterday that axe fell, a leaked letter from senior HSE management to their regional directors confirming that 1,400 jobs previously exempt from the health service recruitment ban would be put on hold. The positions include social workers, therapists and psychiatric nurses vital to the safe running of the system.